The testimony of the vulnerable rape victim, from the perspective of false memories

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present the question concerning the victim's testimony to be used as the only evidentiary means to support a conviction, in the context of the crime of rape of vulnerable, in view of the suggestiveness of memory and its reflexes in the criminal proceedings. The event of the events experienced are not recorded by memory rigorously as they happened, because there is influence of several elements that allow possible changes in the stages of formation of the cognitive process, causing the emergence of false memories. However, due to witness evidence being the only means of proof, most often, to support the conviction of the accused in the crimes in comment, and the fragility of forgery of memory, it is necessary to use techniques to assess the credibility of the child's testimony and to obtain a quality judgment. In this sense, it is analyzed that no evidential element has supremacy over others, however the magistrate should be careful in cases of committing a crime of rape of vulnerable, when there is no expert report or any other evidential element, but only the testimony of the victim. As presented, the judge, in cases of doubt, should act on the basis of the principle in dubio pro reo, making legal certainty achieved and not endangering the possible conviction of an innocent.