Sven Åke Christianson (born June 18, 1954) is a Swedish professor of psychology. He is also a psychologist and writer.[1] His research primarily concerns the function of human memory, crime and mental trauma and interview methods. He is widely discredited and his methods are considered pseudoscientific and unreliable.[2]
Periodically, he has also worked outside the universities to implement knowledge about memory and interview techniques. Examples of such institutions are the Swedish Police Authority in Stockholm County,[citation needed] the forensic region clinic in Sundsvall[citation needed] and for Correctional Officers at the Institution Norrtälje,[citation needed] a closed prison for prisoners deemed dangerous.
Christianson's views on the perpetrators of serious sexual and violent offenses, traumatic experiences in children and adults, as well as cognitive interview methodology has gained considerable influence in several investigations and lawsuits. He is perhaps best known for being interviewed as an expert in media coverage of the investigations of a shooting murder in Rödeby, the sex offender Alexandra Man, and the death in 1998 of 4-year-old Kevin Hjalmarsson, as well as the trials of murderer Christine Schürrer, child sex offender Tito Beltrán and Thomas Quick (later overturned as a miscarriage of justice).
Controversies
His involvement in the case against Thomas Quick is controversial, and it has also been noted that he was one of the psychologists in the circuit around the therapist Margit Norell.[4]
Regarding the murder of Kevin Hjalmarsson where Christianson was the key psychologist involved, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter has reviewed the process and argue that his recommendations were not in line with good practice and may have influenced the investigation unduly.[5][6]
Published works
Amnesia and Emotional Arousal (1984)
Handbook of emotion and memory: Research and theory (1992, ed.)
