Stockholm Syndrome Found in Elizabeth Smart’s Kidnapping Case It has been found that Stockholm syndrome can be found in many cases of kidnapping or sex trafficking. It is usually found in women, men, and children who have been diagnosed with PTSD. Stockholm syndrome is found when the victim begins to have a sense of trust toward their captor and even possible affection for them. Many women, such as Elizabeth Smart, help raise awareness over traumatic experiences that they have been through. In 2016 51% of women were trafficked, since then the number has increased to 80%. 40% is women and the other 40% is young girls. From 2016 to 2018 the rate of women who have been trafficked has increased by 29%. It has been said that nearly all of these women have been diagnosed with some form of Stockholm syndrome. Elizabeth Smart is one victim that has been diagnosed with this mental illness. Smart was kidnapped from her bed at knifepoint by a man named Brian David Mitchell. Mitchell made Smart’s life a living hell for nearly 9 months. Mitchell wanted to start his own religion where he was able to have multiple wives. He already had a “first” wife, Wanda Barzee and he was told by the “lord” that he was to make Smart his “second” wife. They had completely …show more content…
Mitchell simply was just a bad person, with awful intentions. Mitchell’s intentions with Smart was to make her his “second” wife, and he would pray for her to sleep with him and for her perform her “wifely” duties. He believed that Smart was to be beneath him and that she was to listen to his every command. Mitchell and Barzee would force Smart to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes/marijuana, she was even forced into premarital sex several times with Mitchell and she would be forced to watch Mitchell and Barzee have sex. One time, Mitchell had made Smart drink so much she passed out and woke up in a pool of her own
“Hostage survivors often develop an unconscious bond to their captors and experience grief if their captors are harmed”(NP). In some studies, they may also feel guilty for developing a bond. This type of behavior may typically be referred to as the Stockholm Syndrome. In Jaycee Dugard’s memoir, A Stolen Life, she doesn't mention and experience this syndrome in a downlow way. She doesn't confront it as well, but she does mention that she felt bad after he was arrested as well as her other abductor. When they went to the police station, her abductor told the police that she and the kids were his brother’s kids. When Dugard heard, she had the opportunity to rat him out and tell the police the truth, but instead she asked to speak to her uncle instead (A Stolen Life 208). She admits that they were kind of like a family to her and that is what horrifies her. Even though they did all this harm to her and basically took away eighteen years of her life, she was still thankful that they helped raise her two kids that her male abductor impregnated her with. Dugard also showed evidence of what the American Psychological Association mentioned about the emotion stress reaction. “I don't think I slept more than a few minutes that night. I had a terrible sinus headache from crying for several hours. Questions like: What if my mom doesn't accept the girls? What if my mom hates
Stockholm syndrome is a phenomenon in which hostages begin to empathize and sympathize with their captor. They begin to have positive feelings for their captor and even sometimes to the point that that the victim will refuse to even testify against their captor. This has also been called Capture bonding. The phenomenon got its name after a 1972 bank robbery, where employees had been held hostage for 6 days. The hostages ultimately ended up bonding with the bank robbers, and resisted recue. They also refused to testify, and raised money for their captor’s defense.
Andrea Yates long history of mental illness did impact what she did to her children as well as an outside influence of Michael and Rachel Woroniecki. In 1993 Rusty and Andrea married and a year later they had their first child a son named Noah. They planned on having many children whatever God intended for them. Their five children were all named after figures from the Bible. After Andrea’s first child Noah was born she began to have violent visions and felt that Satan was speaking to her. Andrea kept all her feelings to herself not realizing how much mental illness was in her family because she and Rusty had Bible inspired notions about family and motherhood. Andrea tried to have a fourth child, but suffered a miscarriage. Not long after that she got pregnant and had her fourth child. Andrea began to suffer from serious depression after the birth of their fourth child. America has a hard time on understanding how hormonal shifts can cause violent hallucinations and thoughts. Such women are at risk of committing suicide or harming their children thinking that it is for the child’s own good.
Ridgway’s mother loved to embarrass him in front of her friends. As a child, Ridgway would occasionally wet the bed. Ridgway’s mother loved to point this out to her friends. This caused Ridgway to get very embarrassed. His mother would also abuse him by hitting and mistreating him. Ridgway would be full of hatred while all of this was happening. Ridgway began to think differently of his mother. After being tormented so long, Ridgway began thinking of sexual and physical torments he wanted to do to his mother (Gary Ridgway). Mary Ridgway had no care for her son (whose I.Q. of 82 showed very low intelligence). This I.Q. score was a good indicator that he was not being helped at home (Gary Ridgway).
"'I was broken beyond repair': Elizabeth Smart recalls kidnapping ordeal." NBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. .
-Bardsley, M., Bell, R., and Lohr, D. 2009. The BTK Story. Retrieved December 9, 2009 from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/unsolved/btk/index_1.html : This was a reliable source since it collected it’s information from police records, first hand accounts and testimony from the trial. This resource was very helpful because it presented a high-profile case of a person suffering from this disorder.
This paper will shed light on the abductions of three young women by Ariel Castro. Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus were held captive for over a decade in Ariel Castro’s home located in Cleveland, Ohio. These women were all raped and beaten during their years of captivity by a man that they each had known or come in contact with prior to being abducted. After their rescue Ariel Castro faced charges for the rape and kidnapping of these women, he later pled guilty to these charges. After pledging guilty to the charges Ariel Castro hung himself one night in his jail cell. Each one of these girls maintained a since of hope that
In the twenty first century statistics have proven that stranger abductions are feared most by parents but rarely happen, and the number one abduction that occurs is, parental abduction. “Over 800,000 children are reported missing in the United States each year. Child abduction is a tragedy that devastates parents and touches all of us,” writes Jenny Wanderscheid in her online article. The United States has feared abductions for over decades, but many people misjudge the stereotypical “abduction”.
Andrea Yates’ life started out completely normal. She graduated number one in her high school class, became a registered nurse for the Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and met the love of her life and got married. Her life sounds as normal as anyone’s does. Four months after she gave birth to her fourth child, something changed. She tried her first suicide attempt by swallowing 40-50 sleeping pills. She was hospitalized to a psychiatric facility and diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Her doctor’s attempt to medicate her was unsuccessful. She was discharged due to insurance restrictions and according to Charles Patrick Ewing, a forensic psychologist and attorney who wrote the book Insanity, Murder, Madness, and the Law “her family contracted to keep a close eye on the patient.” Several months following her hospitalization, her mental health declined. She lost 13 pounds, had no energy, slept all day, and had memory and conce...
The United States is a major port for human trafficking and, “Due to the covert nature of human trafficking, it is difficult to ascertain which countries are the primary source nations for trafficking into the US” (Hepburn). People of all ages and genders are at risk to human trafficking (Hepburn). Women and girls make up about fifty-six percent of the people trafficked for forced labor, while men and boys make up the other forty-four percent; children make up forty to fifty percent of those numbers (Hepburn). Ninety-eight percent of the people trafficked for sexual explorations are women and girls (Hepburn). Children tend to be targeted more than adults because they are much more vulnerable. Human trafficking has different forms, and “While trafficking for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation is more publicized in the media, it is not the only form of trafficking that takes place in the US” (Hepburn). Trafficking for the purposes of forced labor is just as likely to occur as trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation (Hepburn). Many citizens have never heard of human trafficking for something other than sexual exploitation. Hepburn shows that, “Forty-three percent are trafficked for purposes of...
Stockholm syndrome or what some people call “capture bonding” is a psychological phenomenon where victims show positive feelings or emotional bonding with their captors. Sympathy and empathy are the common feelings expressed by these hostages. These feelings may last even after they are free from their captors. It is important to note that stockholm syndrome is not a disorder but a “survival mechanism” victims unconsciously use as an act of self-preservation. Stockholm syndrome is in some ways similar to the battered person syndrome.
Final Project: Outline Hope Torres Intersect of Crime, Psychology, and Law Walden University 10/15/2017 Elizabeth Smart: Psychological effects of abduction and confinement THESIS STATEMENT: The actions of abductors are more than unlawful, they are psychologically detrimental to the victim by impacting them in several ways. I. Leading factors in most abductions follow a pattern of certain characteristics of the offender and victim. A. A child abduction is one of the greatest fears of many parents, especially when their children are young making them more vulnerable to strangers.
Megan McAllister thought she had won the lottery when she began dating fellow med student, Philip Markoff, for he was everything she had ever wanted in a guy—he was sweet, handsome, brilliant, and… a psychopath? Unknown to poor Megan, her husband-to-be’s dark personality surfaced while he searched through erotic service ads on Craigslist on the hunt for his next victim. However, one question remains—why? Why would a successful, handsome future doctor with a beautiful fiancé feel an urge to commit crimes? The answer? He is a psychopath. Philip Markoff’s interpersonal and affective personality traits contribute to his classification as a modern-day psychopath whose popularity in school, loving relationship, and his affluent lifestyle reveal that his psychopathic qualities are inherent.
Do you remember the 2013 kidnapping case in Cleveland, Ohio where three missing women had been kept captive for over a decade? Do you remember the media frenzy that ensued after? People were questioning why three able-bodied women didn’t try to escape sooner. I was one of those people and as a psychology student I wanted to know the psychological reasoning for their behavior. That led me to Stockholm Syndrome — a rare phenomenon where captives bond with and even sympathize with their captors, sometimes to the point of affection.
The definition of kidnapping is taking away a person against his or her will through force or threat and holding such person in false imprisonment; holding a person without any legal authority or right to do so. There are many reasons this horrible crime is committed. Some kidnap for ransom, to succeed in other crimes, gain custody of their child, and even political reasons. Although most of us associate strangers to be the committers of such a crime, a lot of victims are actually kidnapped by someone they know or even a relative ("Criminal Law Lawyer Source").