How Rape Affects Memory And The Brain, And Why More Police Need To Know About This

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/08/22/ [login to see] /how-rape-affects-memory-and-the-brain-and-why-more-police-need-to-know-about-thi
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 says. "And, for days, I was trying to put the pieces together."

She knew she had gone to a Sacramento bar and restaurant with a group of people, and she remembered drinking there and being left alone with the man she'd later identify as her rapist. But not much else.

Still, memories that she couldn't summon that first morning gradually came into focus over the following days and weeks — details such as 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 that he had a weapon.

"I knew that there was a gun at my neck, at my back," she says. "It was just clear."