Abstract
This chapter explores the memory effects of trauma, emotional remembering by
children, the long-term durability of emotional memories, and other topics
from the perspective of the legal system, asking how eyewitnesses to crimes
remember the events they have observed (or, in many cases, the events in
which they were victimized). Of special importance here is the question of
whether laboratory findings taken as characterizing emotional memory can be
reasonably applied to real-life crime situations. Also prominent in this
chapter is the special case of memories for childhood sexual abuse,
including memories that are apparently lost and then recovered. The chapter
discusses the complexity that arises when one tries to assess these memories
and also factors (including a tendency toward dissociation, or various forms
of psychopathology) that play a role in determining when a traumatic event
will be vividly remembered and when that event will (apparently) be
forgotten.