British False Memory Society: Caseload and details by year (1993 onwards)

Purpose

The British False Memory Society (BFMS) is a registered charity founded in 1993 following an epidemic of false-memory type allegations by adult accusers who claimed to have remembered childhood sexual abuse for which they previously had no cognitive recollection. Many of these accusers had entered counselling after typically suffering from anxiety, depression, and relationship problems. Many came out of therapy with what appeared to be false memories, and the accused sometimes contacted the BFMS for advice. Since its inception, the BFMS has kept a record of all calls to its telephone helpline.

Methods

In this article, we document several caseload details by year from 1993 onwards.

Results

In the peak year of 1994, 268 cases were taken up by the BFMS. During recent years in the last 10 years the number of cases taken on by the BFMS oscillated around about 40 each year. The 2010s had just 3% of the total cases leading to a guilty verdict (1990s = 8%; 2000s = 17%). We found the 2000 decade to be the most likely for those accused to be imprisoned, and the most recent years the least.

Conclusions

We conclude that although the numbers have lessened since the 1994 peak, there are still today a number of individuals being affected by allegations stemming from recovered memories.