Opinion ID: 2638169
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The 1997 Child Maltreatment Article

Text: The May 1997 issue of Child Maltreatment, a scientific journal published by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, contains an essay, authored by David Corwin and Ema Olafson, [2] entitled Videotaped Discovery of a Reportedly Unrecallable Memory of Child Sexual Abuse: Comparison With a Childhood Interview Videotaped 11 Years Before (2 Child Maltreatment 91 [hereafter the Child Maltreatment article]). The Child Maltreatment article contains the following summary of its contents: This article presents the history, verbatim transcripts, and behavioral observations of a child's disclosure of sexual abuse to Dr. David Corwin in 1984 and the spontaneous return of that reportedly unrecallable memory during an interview between the same individual, now a young adult, and Dr. Corwin 11 years later. Both interviews were videotape recorded. The significance, limitations, and clinical implications of this unique case study are discussed. Five commentaries by researchers from differing empirical perspectives who have reviewed these videotape-recorded interviews follow this article. (Child Maltreatment article, supra, at p. 91.) The young woman who is the subject of the Child Maltreatment article was referred to throughout the article as Jane Doe (hereafter sometimes just Jane), and all the names of persons and places relating to her story were changed with the exception of the identity of Corwin, who conducted the interviews. According to the article, Corwin became involved in Jane's case in 1984 after Jane's father accused her mother of physically and sexually abusing her. The allegations were made in the context of a custody dispute, and Corwin was appointed by the court to conduct an evaluation. The Child Maltreatment article contains excerpts from three interviews conducted by Corwin in 1984 when Jane was six years of age. During each interview, Jane told Corwin that her mother had rubbed her finger inside Jane's vagina while giving her a bath. The specific excerpts that are repeated in the article include Jane reporting that her mother first had done this to her when she was three, that these actions hurt, and that her mother had warned she would do something to Jane if Jane told her father what her mother had done. During the third interview, Jane consistently maintained that nobody told her to say these things about her mother and that she was not lying. At one point, Corwin inquired whether Jane's mother had said anything when she placed her finger there. Jane reported that her mother asked: That feel good?, and that Jane had replied no. Jane also said that this had happened on more than 20 occasions and closer to 99 during the time she lived with her mother. (Child Maltreatment article, supra, at pp. 94, 100-101.) The excerpts from the 1984 interviews are interspersed with analysis and with Corwin's conclusions, first drawn and testified to in 1984, that: (1) Jane was physically and sexually abused by her mother, and (2) Jane's mother falsely accused Jane's father of abusing Jane and attempted to coerce Jane into verifying the false accusation. The authors of the Child Maltreatment article reported that their article relied upon background sources in addition to the 1984 interviews, including reports by Child Protective Services and the police, court files and decisions pertaining to the parents' divorce and contentious custody battle, and reports by other evaluators and therapists. According to the article, Jane's statements to Corwin were consistent with statements she previously made to other evaluators. Jane's prior reports of inappropriate behavior by her mother included `striking her on several parts of her body, burning her feet on a hot stove, and invading and hurting her genitals and anus with her hands.' (Child Maltreatment article, supra, at p. 95.) The Child Maltreatment article also contains a transcript of an interview of Jane conducted by Corwin on October 15, 1995, when Jane was 17 years of age. According to the article, the 1995 interview was arranged after Corwin contacted Jane and her father to obtain their consent to continue to use the 1984 videotaped interviews for professional education, and learned that Jane could not remember the events that were the subject of those earlier interviews and wanted to view the 1984 videotapes. (Child Maltreatment article, supra, at p. 98.) Jane's foster mother accompanied her to the interview with Corwin, who agreed to show the two of them the videotapes of the 1984 interviews. (A local therapist also was present during the interview.) At the outset of the 1995 interview and before viewing the 1984 videotapes, Jane stated that she did remember statements and allegations she had made during those interviews but that. [i]t's the memory of if what I said was true that I'm having a problem with. (Child Maltreatment article, supra, at p. 104.) Corwin asked Jane to share what she could recall about that period' of time concerning the 1984 interviews and the things she may have said then. Jane described the room where she was interviewed in 1984 and a sweatshirt she may have worn, and began to recount some of the allegations she had made. She recalled accusing her mother of abusing her by burning her feet on a stove but stated she could not remember whether that was in fact how her feet were burned. Jane told Corwin that she recently had been in contact with her mother, who denied all the allegations of abuse. When Corwin focused the discussion on sexual abuse, the following occurred: DC [3] Okay. Do you remember anything about the concerns about possible sexual abuse? JD: No. (Eye closure) I mean, I remember that was part of the accusation, but I don't remember anything(inhales audibly and closes eyes) wait a minute, yeah, I do. DC: What do you remember? JD: (Pauses) Oh my gosh, that's really, ( ... Close[s] eyes and holds eyes ) really weird. (Looks at foster mother) I accused her of taking pictures (starts to cry and foster mother puts hand on Jane's shoulder) of me and my brother and selling them and I accused her ofwhen she was bathing me or whatever, hurting me, and that's DC: As you're saving that to me, you remember having said those things or you remember having experienced those things? JD: I remember saying about the pictures, I remember it happening, that she hurt me. DC: Hurt you, where? How? JD: She hurt me. She Therapist: There's tissues to your right. JD: You see. I don't know if it was an intentional hurtshe was bathing me, and I only remember one instance, and she hurt me, she put her fingers too far where she shouldn't have, and she hurt me. But I don't know if it was intentional, or if it was just accidental. DC: Can you be more specific because I? JD: I know what was said on the tape. On the tape it was said that she put her fingers in my vagina. And she hurt me. DC: Okay. Is that what you recall or JD: That's what I recall. I recall saying it, and I recall it happening. DC: You recall it happening? JD: I recall. I didn'tthat's the first time I've remembered that since saying that when I was 6 years old, but I remember. (Child Maltreatment article, supra, at pp. 105-106.) According to the Child Maltreatment article, Corwin thereafter showed Jane the videotapes of the 1984 interviews, took a two and one-half hour break, and then recommenced the 1995 videotaped interview. During that part of the interview, Corwin asked Jane to describe her feelings about viewing the videotapes. Jane responded that the tapes reinforced her belief that her mother had abused her. In her view, the girl she saw on the tapes would not have made up the accusations. Jane also expressed relief that she no longer had to entertain the possibility that her father, who recently had died, had lied to her about her mother. At the end of the 1995 interview, Jane agreed that Corwin could use her interviews for educational purposes. She stated: Yeah, I think it'sI mean, I'm prepared to give my life, devote my life, to helping other kids who have gone through what I've gone through, well not necessarily what I've gone through, that have gone through traumatic ... experiences, by becoming a psychologist or psychiatrist, whichever I decide but, and I by no means want to stand in your way. (Child Maltreatment article, supra, at p. 109.) In the final pages of the Child Maltreatment article, the authors reconciled possible inconsistencies between Jane's recalled memory in 1995 and the accusations she made in 1984, and concluded that [t]he core recollection, then, is true to her earlier disclosures. (Child Maltreatment article, supra, at p. 110.) The authors also suggested that, assuming Jane's memory of abuse actually had been unavailable to her prior to the 1995 interview, Corwin's presence may have helped trigger her recall. Finally, the authors posed questions and issues to explore and address in the future. In addition to the article by Corwin and Olafson, the May 1997 issue of Child Maltreatment contained five separate shorter articles by prominent professionals in the mental health field who had reviewed the Corwin and Olafson article and the videotaped interviews described in that article. [4] Each of these case commentaries uniformly praised the manner in which Corwin had conducted his interviews with Jane Doe and generally described the case study as unique, extraordinarily important, and providing important insights into the nature of missing memories. (E.g., Putnam, Commentary, supra, 2 Child Maltreatment 117, 117.) Further, a number of the commentators, in discussing additional questions they believed should be explored, stated that it would be useful to know what has happened to Jane subsequently. Has she recalled other previously unavailable traumatic memories (e.g., how her feet were burned)? How has this affected her relationship with her mother? ... It would be interesting to see whether this experience has produced substantial changes in her life, for better or worse. (Putnam, Commentary, supra, 2 Child Maltreatment at p. 120; see also Ekman, Expressive Behavior and the Recovery of a Traumatic Memory: Comments on the Videotapes of Jane Doe, supra, 2 Child Maltreatment at p. 116 [Many questions remain unanswered and will only be revealed over time as we can learn how her adult personality takes shape].)