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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 418-1 Filed 11/08/21 Page 10 of 14 Comey, Moe, Pomerantz and Rohrbach November 1, 2021 Page 10 Dissociation: Dissociation is ‘the lack of the normal integration of thoughts, feelings, and experiences into the stream of consciousness and memory. Dissociation involves a disruption or splitting off of memory, personality, identity, consciousness, or general perceptions of the self and surroundings; it can be recurring, gradual, or transient. It is likely associated with memory distortions. Thus, it is possible that in the event of a sexual assault, dissociation may cause a person to fill in the parts of the experience that are not clearly remembered with events that for them feasibly could have occurred. Of course, memory lapses will not necessarily be filled in with a confabulated event, let alone a sexual one. However, individuals who dissociate at a high frequency may seek to make their stories more coherent by adding details to an incomplete memory that would make sense to them when considered in the context of the event. Thus, these confabulations may lead to erroneous claims that have forensic relevance, including who the perpetrator was, what happened, where, and how many times. Intellectual Disability: Intellectual disability, is characterized by below average IQ and adaptive functioning. Limitations in functioning include deficits in the acquisition of social, occupational, academic, and general self-care skills. Intellectual disability has several etiologies that often are related to biological or pathological processes affecting the central nervous system. Many of the specific vulnerabilities that arise from intellectual disability overlap to some extent with other disorders (e.g., autism spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy, fetal alcohol syndrome) and individuals with other developmental disabilities may also have intellectual disability. Intellectually disabled individuals, compared to individuals without ID, have vulnerabilities related to memory and communication that the legal system may not be equipped to handle adequately. Individuals with moderate-to-profound ID may have significant difficulty communicating about the events that occurred because of language skills deficits or other communication-interfering conditions (e.g., related neurological conditions). Research findings indicate that communications skills are essential in filing a sexual assault charge; alleged victims with mild ID were more likely than individuals with moderate or severe ID not only to file sexual assault charges but to have their allegations confirmed. Difficulties with memory may also complicate the investigation process for individuals with ID. Changes in the core details of the allegation are often used by professionals as indices in determining the credibility of a victim’s claims. Peace and colleagues (2015) conducted a narrative analysis of 147 sets of allegations of sexual assault across short (3 month) and long (6 month) intervals since the alleged event took place. In reviewing the existing literature, Peace and colleagues found that genuine traumatic experiences have a demonstrable resiliency to drastic impairments in recall. However, some inconsistencies especially in less core matters are to be expected due to some less important details fading or varying over time. In examining their sample of 147 allegations, the researchers discovered that truthful allegations contained more detail relative to false allegations at each of the assessment intervals. Specifically, the researchers found that fabricated allegations of traumatic experiences contained more inconsistent details both at 3 months and 6 months. The total amount of detail for each type of allegation (true or false) does tend to decrease over time. Additionally, as these figures suggest, the researchers found that the number of details present in genuine reports continued to decrease over time whereas fabricated stories ‘levelled off” in detail. DOJ-OGR-00006190