Search

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address how context for malingering and the provision of incentives influence malingered symptom profiles of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Design/methodology/approach – A 2 (case context)×3 (incentive) factorial design was utilized. Participants (n=298) were given an incentive (positive, negative, or no incentive), randomly assigned to a criminal or civil context, and asked to provide a fake claim of child abuse with corresponding malingered symptoms of PTSD. Under these conditions, participants completed several questionnaires pertaining to symptoms of trauma and PTSD. Findings – Results indicated that negative incentives were primarily associated with lower symptom scores. Therefore, “having something to lose” may result in more constrained (and realistic) symptom reports relative to exaggeration evidenced with positive incentives. Originality/value – These results have implications for forensic settings where malingered claims of PTSD are common and incentives for such claims (e.g. having something to gain or lose) frequently exist. Previous studies have failed to address incentives (positive and negative) in relation to a crime (i.e. abuse) that can span both criminal and civil contexts.

Weapon focus is frequently cited as a factor in eyewitness testimony, and is broadly defined as a weapon-related decrease in performance on subsequent tests of memory for those elements of an event or visual scene concurrent to the weapon. This effect has been attributed to either (a) physiological or emotional arousal that narrows the attentional beam (arousal/threat hypothesis), or (b) the cognitive demands inherent in processing an unusual object (e.g. weapon) that is incongruent with the schema representing the visual scene (unusual item hypothesis). Meta-analytical techniques were applied to test these theories as well as to evaluate the prospect of weapon focus in real-world criminal investigations. Our findings indicated an effect of weapon presence overall (g= 0.53) that was significantly influenced by retention interval, exposure duration, and threat but unaffected by whether the event occurred in a laboratory, simulation, or real-world environment.

Psychological disorders associated with traumatic events, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), may be prone to malingering due to the subjective nature of trauma symptomology. In general, symptoms tend to be inflated when an external reward (i.e., compensation) is associated with the claim. The present study was designed to test whether malingered claims of PTSD symptoms differed as a function of the type of trauma being malingered (accident, disaster, sexual assault) and the motivation for malingering (compensation, attention, revenge, no motivation). Participants were randomly assigned into conditions, given malingering instructions, and then asked to complete three measures of trauma symptoms (Impact of Event Scale—Revised; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist; Trauma Symptom Inventory). Results indicated that participants in the sexual assault condition produced higher symptom reports on nearly all scales. Revenge and compensation motivations yielded elevated symptom scores. Further, individuals rated high in fantasy proneness and dissociation produced elevated scores on atypical responding and most clinical scales. More research is needed to examine the extent to which different motivations and trauma types influence symptom reporting.

False allegations of victimization typically are accompanied by malingered emotional symptomology to corroborate claims. This analog study was designed to compare truthful and fabricated symptom profiles on measures of post-traumatic stress (i.e., Revised Impact of Event Scale, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist, Trauma Symptom Inventory) and levels of symptom consistency over time. Participants (undergraduate students) described their mental health symptoms for both traumas at time 1 (N = 291), time 2 (N = 252, 3 month), and time 3 (N = 181, 6 months). Results indicated that fabricated traumas were associated with inflated symptom profiles. Validity scales were not effective at discerning symptom veracity, although reports could be discriminated somewhat by atypical responding and clinical scales. PTSD symptoms in malingerers also were reported more consistently over time. This research offers applicable information for identifying feigned traumatic stress.

Defendants commonly claim amnesia for their criminal actions especially in cases involving extreme violence. While some claims are malingered or result from physiological factors, other cases may represent genuine partial or complete amnesia resulting from the psychological distress and/or extreme emotion associated with the perpetration of the crime. Fifty Canadian homicide offenders described their memories of their homicide, a non-homicide violent offense, and their most positive adulthood life experience. Self-reported and objective measures of memories for these events revealed that homicides were recalled with the greatest level of detail and sensory information. Although dissociative tendencies were associated with a self-reported memory loss, objective measures of memory quality did not reflect this perceived impairment, suggesting a failure of meta-memory. Recollections of positive life events were superior to those of non-homicidal violence, possibly due to greater impact and meaning attached to such experiences. Findings suggest that memory for homicide typically is enhanced by the powerful emotion associated with its perpetration.

This study examined the potential influence of alexithymia, dissociation, and social desirability on the narrative features associated with truthful and fabricated traumatic events. Participants (N = 291) wrote narratives describing both genuine and fabricated traumas and completed scales measuring individual differences. Alexithymia was associated with less plausible reports (independent of veracity) and differential reporting of emotional details between narratives. Higher levels of dissociation were related to less coherent and plausible reports, and less contextual detail in fabricated reports. Further, coherence and plausibility ratings fluctuated between low, moderate, and high social desirability groups. These results suggest that individual difference factors are important considerations in the forensic assessment of the veracity of trauma reports.

According to a long-standing clinical tradition, sexually traumatic experiences are processed and recalled differently from other experiences, often leading to memory impairment. In this study, we compared the characteristics of traumatic memories for sexual violence and two other types of emotional experiences. N=44 women recruited from a local sexual trauma agency were asked to recall and describe three autobiographical events: sexual abuse/assault, a non-sexual trauma, and a positive emotional event. The characteristics of the three memory types were compared on both subjective and objective measures. Further, the potential influences of level of traumatic impact and dissociation were assessed. Results indicated that memories for sexual trauma were not impaired or fragmented relative to other memories. Instead, memories for sexual trauma were associated with a remarkably high level of vividness, detail, and sensory components. Further, high levels of traumatic impact were not associated with memory impairment. Implications for the ongoing traumatic memory debate are discussed.

Les preneurs de decisions dans le domaine judiciaire doivent frequemment evaluer la credibilite des rapports de victimisation traumatique. Dans la presente etude, nous avons compare les caracteristiques de la memoire et des symptomes post-traumatiques associes a des comptes rendus de traumatismes veridiques et pathonimiques. Les participants (N = 126) ont decrit par ecrit une experience traumatique veritable et fabriquee (neutralisee) et ont rempli des echelles de gravite des symptomes des traumatismes afferents. En ce qui a trait aux comptes rendus de traumatismes veritables, l'information dans les comptes rendus fabriques etait moins plausible et contenait un moins grand nombre de details contextuels. Cependant, les comptes rendus veridiques et pathonimiques etaient similaires d'un point de vue qualitatif a d'autres criteres comme la coherence et la pertinence. Les experiences traumatisantes fabriquees ont ete associees a des evaluations extremes a des mesures psychologiques multiples et diverses de la detresse emotive et un niveau plus eleve de trouble stressant post-traumatique apparent. Cependant, la plupart des participants ont ete en mesure de « dejouer » les echelles de validite generalement utilisees. Les implications pour l'evaluation de la credibilite des reclamations de victimisation dans les cas juridiques ont fait l'objet de discussions.

This study examined the relative consistency and characteristics of memories for trauma and other non-traumatic emotional experiences over time. A community sample of 52 participants who reported a recent traumatic event were asked to recall both the traumatic and a positive emotional experience in two interviews separated by approximately three months (M = 105.39 days). The recollections were elicited with either a free narrative, cognitive interview, guided imagery, or written narrative approach. Results indicated that traumatic experiences were recalled more reliably over time than other emotional experiences. Traumatic memory imagery tended to persist in memory (with no apparent impairment), whereas features of positive memories were subject to considerable distortion, regardless of interview style. The findings contribute to the understanding of the impact of trauma on memory with the passage of time. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We conducted a prospective study with individuals who first described their memories of both a recent traumatic and a highly positive emotional experience in 2001-2002. Of the 49 subjects interviewed after 3 months, 29 were re-interviewed after 3.45 to 5.0 years. Subjects answered questions from a 12-item consistency questionnaire (maximum possible score of 36), rated the qualities of their memories, and completed questionnaires concerning the impact of the trauma. Results indicated that traumatic memories (including memories for violence) were highly consistent (M= 28.04) over time relative to positive memories (M= 17.75). Ratings of vividness, overall quality, and sensory components declined markedly for positive memories but remained virtually unchanged for traumatic memories. The severity of traumatic symptoms diminished over time and was unrelated to memory consistency. These findings contribute to understanding of the impact of trauma on memory over long periods.

Eyewitness memory for the perpetrator or circumstances of a crime is generally worse for scenarios involving weapons compared to those involving non-weapon objects—a pattern known for decades as the weapon focus effect. But despite ample support from laboratory experiments and recognition by experts, testimony concerning weapon focus is rarely admissible in court. The present article summarizes a selection of key findings within the weapon focus literature and considers whether the effect warrants consideration by the criminal justice system at this time. We conclude that weapon focus is sufficiently robust and uncontroversial to guide practice so long as consideration is given to the circumstances surrounding the criminal event with a particular emphasis on witness expectation.