Linda Meyer Williams (born c. 1949)[1] is an American sociologist and criminologist. She is senior research scientist at Wellesley Centers for Women and director of the Justice and Gender-Based Violence Research Initiative. She is also professor emerita of criminal justice and criminology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on child maltreatment, research methods, and gender, race and crime.[2] Williams has researched in the field of psychology on topics including child abuse, family violence and violence against women, and trauma and memory (including recovered memory).
Williams received her B.A. (1971) from Beaver College (now Arcadia University), and her M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1979) in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied at the Center for Research in Criminology and Criminal Law.[2]
In the 1980s Williams spent time in Bermuda, working on prison reform and social justice issues while teaching courses in criminology and sociology.[3] From 1996 to 2005 Williams was director of research at the Stone Center at Wellesley College, working in the areas of child sexual abuse, rape, sex offenders, fatal child abuse, and memory of childhood trauma. Williams conducted longitudinal studies in some of these areas.[2][4] In 2005 she was appointed professor of criminal justice and criminology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.[2]
The August 2007 issue of SAGE Journal of Child Maltreatment was co-edited by Williams and Veronica Herrera.[5][6]
Contributions
Williams is notable in the field of [Trauma and Memory] for her longitudinal studies in the area of violence against women[7] and childhood sexual abuse.[8] Of 61 publications with over 16,000 citations https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MmuJ_n8AAAAJ&hl=en#:~:text=Citations-,16812,-2482 one study that has received particular interest is "Recall of childhood trauma: A prospective study of women's memories of child sexual abuse," published in 1994.[9] It has currently been cited 1852 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&hl=en&cites=15800602863238179687 times and has influenced the field because it provides convincing evidence that child sexual abuse can be forgotten and then later recalled https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02102893 and because it was important in the rebuttal of the contention that such recall is "false memory." During the 1970s, Williams collected data from 206 girls between the ages of 0 and 12 who were admitted to the hospital emergency room because of sexual abuse. They were examined and these records as well as interviews with the child and parents were documented in the hospital medical records. Seventeen years later, in the early 1990s, Williams interviewed 138 of these women in what they were informed was a follow-up of study of girls and women seen in the hospital in the early 1970s. They were not reminded of the sexual abuse record and answered questions about their social and psychological functioning and their experiences with interpersonal violence. Of the 138 interviewed, 38% of the women did not appear to recall the sexual abuse that was documented in the hospital medical records. It was deemed unlikely that the women who did not appear to recall the abuse simply did not report it to the interviewers if they did not want to discuss such personal matters as 68% of this group reported other incidents of sexual abuse from their childhood. The conclusion was that a significant minority of women women who have been sexually abused as children appeared to have forgotten the abuse. This has major implications on childhood amnesia and repressed memories. As many of the women reported other abuse in childhood one might conclude that only 15 of the women (12%) reported they were never abused in childhood. It was suggested that 12% is an underestimation because the sample was only from reported abuse and not total numbers of sexually abused. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02102893 Furthermore, because the abuse was reported the women may have been less likely to have forgotten the abuse compared to women whose abuse was never reported.
The Journal also provided a reply from Loftus, Garry, and Feldman (1994) titled "Forgetting sexual trauma: What does it mean when 38% forget?"[10] and has been a point of discussion in regard to traumatic memories and repression.
Achievements and awards
Williams has been president for the board of The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.[11]
Year
Award
2001
Outstanding Service Award, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (ASPAC) [12]
1994
David Caul Memorial Award, Best Research Study, International Society for the Study of Dissociation [13]
↑Williams, Linda Meyer (1994). "Recall of childhood trauma: A prospective study of women's memories of child sexual abuse". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 62 (6): 1167–1176. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.62.6.1167. PMID7860814.
↑Loftus, Elizabeth F.; Garry, Maryanne; Feldman, Julie (1994). "Forgetting sexual trauma: What does it mean when 38% forget?". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 62 (6): 1177–1181. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.62.6.1177. PMID7860815.
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