BRIEF COMMUNICATION Cláudia Cristina Studart Leal1 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1416-6127 Alleged amnesia in sexual crime Alexandre Martins Valença1 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5744-2112 Alegação de amnésia em crime sexual DOI: 10.1590/0047-2085000000281 ABSTRACT The current article describes the case of a man who claimed amnesia in relation to a sexual crime he had allegedly committed. Psychiatric examination concluded that the individual was feigning amnesia. Claimed amnesia of a criminal offense is one of the most commonly feigned symptoms in the forensic medical setting. It is thus necessary to rule out organic or psychogenic causes of amnesia and always consider feigned amnesia in the presence of psychopathological alterations that do not reflect classi- cally known syndromes. KEYWORDS Crime, amnesia, simulation, criminal liability. RESUMO O presente artigo descreve o caso de um homem que alegou amnésia ao fato da denúncia de cri- me sexual que lhe foi imputada. A perícia psiquiátrica concluiu tratar-se de simulação. A alegação de amnésia da ofensa criminosa é um dos sintomas mais comumente simulados no ambiente pericial. Portanto, devem-se excluir as causas de amnésia orgânica ou psicogênica e sempre considerar a am- nésia simulada na presença de alterações psicopatológicas que não configuram quadros sindrômicos classicamente conhecidos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE Crime, amnésia, simulação, responsabilidade penal. Received in: Mar/13/2020. Approved in: Jun/6/2020 1 Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Institute of Psychiatry (IPUB), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Address for correspondence: Cláudia Cristina Studart Leal. Av. Venceslau Brás, 71, Praia Vermelha – 22290-140 – Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. E-mails: [email protected]; [email protected] 198 Leal CCS, Valença AM INTRODUCTION of feigned amnesia was identified in the sample. Nineteen offenders (43.2%) did not have a psychiatric diagnosis, nine Amnesia is characterized by a memory deficit, which can be (20.4%) were diagnosed with mental retardation, and 16 transient or permanent. Wortzel and Arciniegas1 describe the (36.4%) had a diagnosis of mental or neurological disorder. impairment that can occur in encoding memory, related to new In another study, Valença et al.9 conducted a literature learning acquisitions or recall, that is, recalling previously learned review of sexual crimes and mental disorders. The most situations, including anterograde or retrograde memories. frequently diagnosed mental disorders were schizophrenia, During criminal interviews in forensic psychiatry, it is bipolar disorder, and mental retardation. There were no common for the interviewee to claim amnesia in relation to reports of simulation. the facts of the criminal complaint. According to Grondal et The aim of this article, based on the case report technique, al.2, an average of 33% of criminal offenders claim amnesia is to describe an individual accused of a sexual offense and in relation to the acts related to the crime. The prevalence who, doing the criminal proceedings, attempted to feign is higher in more violent crimes such as homicides. Most symptoms of amnesia. Publication of this case was authorized criminals that claim amnesia of their offense are significantly by the administration of the Heitor Carrilho Forensic Institute, older than those who do not claim amnesia3,4. where the forensic examination was performed. Taylor and Kopelman5 assessed 203 men who were under arrest and had committed non-violent and violent crimes Evaluation in psychiatric expertise (homicide, arson, and assault). None of those accused of non- A white Brazilian male, 70 years old, married, retired, violent crimes reported amnesia of the act in question. Of the appeared at the Forensic Psychiatric Institute in Rio de 34 convicted murderers, 26% claimed amnesia (compared Janeiro, Brazil, for a forensic examination involving criminal to 8% of the 120 criminals who had practiced other violent liability. According to the report by the Office of the Public acts). A study by Pyszora et al.4 assessed 207 convicts serving Prosecutor, the individual had engaged in libidinous acts life sentences in England and Wales in 1994 and found that with a 15-year-old girl, other than sexual intercourse, namely 29% claimed amnesia of their criminal offense (among those fondling her buttocks, in exchange for the gift of a cellphone. committed of homicide, the figure was 31.4%). He was thus on trial under Article 218-B, Heading, Section Cima et al.3 assessed a sample of 308 forensic psychiatric 2, Item I of the Brazilian Criminal Code, included under Law inpatients (180 in Germany and 128 in the Netherlands). Of 12.015 of 200910. these, 72 (23%) claimed amnesia of their crimes; of these, 24 The accused claimed to the examiners, “I don’t (33%) had committed homicide, 18 (25%) sexual crimes, 8 remember any girl at all. I don’t remember her having asked (11%) serious physical assault, and 22 (31%) arson and/or for anything.” In his clinical history, there was no report of robbery. delay in psychomotor development. He had started working A Canadian study6 of sex offenders at the Sexual Behaviors as a child, on the farm with his siblings. He had been married Clinic of the Royal Ottawa College found that those who for 40 years with his current wife, with three children. He had claimed amnesia for their offenses had committed more worked at different jobs, as a farmworker, butcher, car washer, violent acts and met the diagnostic criteria for potentially green grocer, and finally as a truck driver, before retiring harmful paraphilias. 10 years before the facts in question. On a voluntary basis, Jelicic7 describes three causes for alleged amnesia he had been president of his neighborhood association, during crime: organic, psychogenic, or simulation. The origin remaining at this post until a year after the facts leading to of organic amnesia is a disease or injury, such as epilepsy, his indictment. schizophrenia, head trauma, stroke, bipolar disorder, or The individual reported that he experienced episodes of alcohol or drug intoxication, among others. Psychogenic psychomotor agitation with irritability and aggressiveness amnesia is a dissociative amnesia, caused by the incapacity (not directed against others). He added that he is usually to recall personal situations or events after a traumatic or “disoriented” during such episodes, which tend to occur stressful experience with a psychological origin1. Feigned spontaneously, but that they are also precipitated by amnesia is the intentional production or exaggeration of situations of greater affective stress. When asked to describe memory impairment with the motive of obtaining secondary such alterations with greater detail, he was imprecise in his gain, which in the case of crimes is to avoid the possibility of description and claimed to be unable to furnish such details. being penalized for the criminal act. At the very beginning of the interview, the wife of the No studies were found in the Brazilian literature that cited accused states spontaneously to the examiner that she the incidence of alleged amnesia among offenders. This may “believes in his innocence”. She states that he spends most be due to the difficulty in selecting such samples. of his time at home engaging in personal activities (e.g., Valença et al.8 conducted a study with a sample of 44 sex watching television). She says that his outbreaks occur for offenders in Rio de Janeiro, all of whom were men. No case no apparent reason and last about 30 to 40 minutes. She J Bras Psiquiatr. 2020;69(3):197-200 Crime and amnesia 199 adds that he cannot be in charge of certain household inconsistency in the individual’s claim that he had forgotten chores, that “he has already forgotten a pot on the stove”. the facts pursuant to the complaint. He is currently in psychiatric follow-up and medicated with The claim of amnesia of a criminal offense is common in the sertraline and alprazolam. He reports no previous psychiatric forensic psychiatric setting. However, organic causes should hospitalizations, suicide attempts, or clinical alterations, and be investigated in detail. Psychogenic amnesia, although no history of accidents, injuries, surgery, alcohol or drug use, controversial in the forensic community, should be considered, blood transfusion, or seizures. since there are situations in which there is no criminal The interviewee is evasive in his replies during most of circumstance or secondary gain with the claim, while such the interview. He provides partially correct personal data, amnesia occurs12. In the case in point, there are no sufficient using approximate answers on some items in his personal elements to consider a hypothesis of psychogenic amnesia. identification. For example, when asked to state his age, Ideally, psychometric tests should be applied to assess he says 72, but he gives his correct birthdate and is able to memory and simulation, minimizing diagnostic divergences perform simple arithmetic correctly. and the resulting juridical repercussions. When an individual He gives the interviewer contradictory answers at more feigns amnesia and his intentional production of this than one point in the interview. He claims that he cannot symptom goes undetected, the result may be to avert or state his current or prior medical treatment, but as the eliminate criminal sanctions against him, even though his interview proceeds, he answers affirmatively when asked capacity to understand and determine his acts is preserved. about his use of psychoactive medication. When asked to On the other hand, the assumption of simulation occurs, as memorize three words pronounced by the interviewer (after in the case in point, when the only purported symptom is the repeating them, namely “ball”, “horse”, and “brick”), he is claim of amnesia in relation to the alleged criminal offense. initially unable to recall them when asked (after a short time), It is common to refer to amnesia of criminal acts in cases but he later says that one of the words is “cat”.