How Rape Affects Memory, and Why Police Need to Know About That Brain Science
Annie Walker woke up one morning in 2019 with little recollection of the night before. She had bruises on her arms, legs, wrist and lower abdomen.
“But I literally had no idea what had happened,” she said. “And, for days, I was trying to put the pieces together.”
She remembered she was drinking with people she knew at a Sacramento, California, bar and restaurant and recalled being left alone with the man she’d later identify as her rapist. But not much else.
Memories she couldn’t summon that first morning gradually came into focus over days and weeks, she said. The emerging details included what the man had been wearing, and the way he shoved her against the bar. One week after the attack, she reported the crime to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.
Then, in the days after making the report, another wave of memories surfaced — she recalled, vividly, that the man had raped her and had a weapon.
“I knew that there was a gun at my neck, at my back,” she said. “It was just clear.”
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