-Caveat Lector-
Below please find information on an ethics compliant.
Sincerely, Neil Brick
All accusations are alleged
Exceprts from http://fmsf.net/apa-complaint.shtml
Notes From The Controversy
Ethics Complaints Filed Against Prominent FMSF Board Member
APA Declines To Investigate
In December 1995, two women filed ethics complaints with the American
Psychological Association (APA) against Elizabeth Loftus, PhD, regarding her
published statements about two legal cases involving delayed memories of
sexual abuse. Citing procedural considerations, however, the APA has declined
to investigate the women's ethics complaints.
Jennifer Hoult (a concert harpist living in New York) and Lynn Crook (a
Washington State consultant) each filed separate complaints with the APA,
alleging that Loftus mischaracterized the facts of their legal cases in
published articles. Both women brought successful civil suits because of the
sexual abuse that the fathers (and the mother, in Crook's case) perpetrated
against them during their childhoods. At their trials, they presented
corroborative evidence that met the requirements for judicial proof of their
allegations.
In her complaint, Hoult alleges that Loftus used distortion and misstatement
of fact to seriously misrepresent Hoult's legal case. In 1988 Hoult brought a
civil suit against her father, alleging that he had raped and otherwise
sexually abused her throughout her childhood. After several years of legal
wrangling, the case finally went to trial in June 1993. On July 1, 1993, the
jury returned a verdict in favor of Jennifer Hoult, awarding her $500,000 for
the suffering caused by her father's incestuous abuse. All higher courts have
upheld the jury's decision, including the first circuit appellate court. When
Hoult's father petitioned the US Supreme Court, his petition was rejected as
untimely. At some point during all these proceedings, Hoult's father joined
the FMSF.
In the March/April 1995 issue of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER (a publication of the
Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, or CSICOP),
Loftus published an article titled "Remembering Dangerously." Subsequently,
this article appeared as a resource document on separate Internet home pages
maintained for CSICOP, for the FMSF, and for Loftus at the Department of
Psychology, University of Washington. In the article, Loftus reviews a number
of high-profile cases involving delayed memories of child abuse. The
introduction to the article, giving a cartoon view of the legal process,
indicates Loftus's general approach to the cases she reviews. We live in a
strange and precarious time that resembles at its heart the hysteria and
superstitious fervor of the witch trials of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. Men and women are being accused, tried, and convicted with no
proof or evidence of guilt other than the word of the accuser. Even when the
accusations involve numerous perpetrators, inflicting grievous wounds over
many years, even decades, the accuser's pointing finger of blame is enough to
make believers of judges and juries. (p. 20) Of the several cases reviewed
in the article, Loftus includes "the case of Jennifer H" (p. 26). Though
Loftus ostensibly offers Hoult a degree of anonymity by using an initial for
her last name, she actually identifies Hoult by citing the case (Hoult v.
Hoult) in the article. In an interview with TREATING ABUSE TODAY, Hoult
stated that Loftus's article distorts her case through a broad range of
unethical practices. Among others, Hoult asserts that Loftus misrepresents
her competence, expertise, and personal motivation to speak as an expert on
trauma and abuse. As many others have already pointed out, Loftus has never
worked as a clinician and thus lacks training or clinical experience in child
psychology, trauma, the processes of traumatic memory, the evaluation of
alleged sex offenders, and child sexual abuse generally. In this regard,
Hoult alleges that Loftus violated a number of APA ethics guidelines,
including the need for truthfulness and candor, misuse of influence, and
making claims outside the area of her expertise.
Hoult also alleges that Loftus used mischaracterization and omission of facts
to misconstrue Hoult's legal case against her father. She pointed out many
inaccuracies that support this allegation. In the article, for instance,
Loftus claims that "Jennifer was a 23-year-old musician who recovered
memories in therapy of her father raping her from the time she was 4" (1995,
p. 26). Actually, Hoult began to remember the abuse at 24, at which time she
was an artificial intelligence software engineer. Records in the case show
that the bulk of her memories emerged outside of therapy. Furthermore, Hoult
never stated that the rapes began when she was four, a "fact" apparently
created by Loftus for the purposes of her article.
In another passage, Loftus claims that Hoult "remembered one time when she
was raped in the bathroom and went to her
