According to the FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System, 73% of hostages display no sign of Stockholm syndrome (G. Dwayne Fuselier. 1999) My aim was to find out the root causes of the condition, to help myself and others to better understand this unique phenomenon established on the evidence discovered from my research. The research uncovered numerous discoveries that affected the way I exhibited my research project outcome. The information I came by proposed that Stockholm syndrome is more common among females compared to males, as a result of a range of reasons; consequently I changed my outlook to the causes of Stockholm syndrome in females rather than focusing on both genders. The motives for this are conversed in my key findings below. The preliminary research was associated with the background of Stockholm syndrome, as it is a fundamental factor in progressing to find the causes of the condition. I wanted to find out about the first recorded incident of Stockholm syndrome, and the environment the hostages lived in that made them react in the way they did. The article Love and Stockholm Syndrome: The Mystery of Loving an Abuser by Dr Joseph Carver gave me insight into the origin of the disorder. It shared of how two armed thieves arrived at a bank in Stockholm, Sweden and proceeded to rob the bank while holding four victims hostage (three women and one man). “The hostages were strapped with dynamite for the next 131 hours.” When they were finally rescued by police, the victims immediately started protecting their captors from the police. They were so attached to the thieves that they feared law enforcement personnel. Dr Carver goes on to state that “One woman later became engaged to one of the criminals and another develo... ... middle of paper ... ... found that the longer the victims are held in captivity, the less probable they are of recovering from the condition. My findings are imperative not only for Stockholm syndrome sufferers, but for the general public as it can assist them to understand the concepts of the condition. By understanding the condition and gaining knowledge about why it occurs, we can help suffers overcome the syndrome quickly and effectively. Having the community understand this rare phenomenon will show the victims how much support they have behind them, thus enabling them to be accepting of any treatment. I wanted to help others understand the causes of Stockholm syndrome so that together we can help victims suffering from the disorder. The pamphlet takes what I learnt throughout my research processes and delivers the information in a clear and concise way that is easy to understand.
“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
Marianne Szegedy-Maszak, a senior writer at U.S. News and World, published her article, "The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism," in 2004. She uses the article to briefly overview the scandal as a whole before diving into what can trigger sadistic behavior. The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal took place in 2004, wherein American troops humiliated and tortured Iraqi detainees (Szegedy-Maszak 75). The main objective of Szegedy-Maszak’s article is to investigate the causation behind sadistic behavior, exclusively in the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal. She effectively does so by gathering information and research from professional psychologists and professors of psychology, specifically Herbert Kelman and Robert Okin (Szegedy-Maszak 76). She finds
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.
Solitary confinement has the ability to shatter even the healthiest mind when subjected to indefinite lockdown, yet the mentally ill, who are disproportionately represented in the overall prison population, make up the majority of inmates who are held in that indefinite lockdown. Within your average supermax prison in which all inmates are subjected to an elevated form of solitary confinement, inmates face a 23-hour lockdown, little to no form of mental or physical stimulation that is topped off with no human interaction beyond the occasional guard to inmate contact. It is no wonder ‘torture’ is often used synonymously to describe solitary confinement. For years, cases arguing against solitary confinement have contested against its inhumane
Vanger is not an isolated example; numerous times in this Swedish novel do misogynistic and sadist examples appear. Nor does the book portray an isolated culture of sadists in Sweden, as is evidenced by Lisbeth Salander who says that, “by the time she was 18…did not know a single girl who at some point had not been forced to perform some sort of sexual act against her will” (Larsson 228).
The formation of a serial killer is derived through a chain of events within their environment. Carl Panzram is a prime example of a child whose environment and life experiences led him to a life of criminal psychopathological behavior. This paper reviews the elements of Carl Panzram’s psychopathology, family history, psychological history, criminal history, lifestyle, relationships, criminal actions attempted, and his arrest through sentencing and death. The time-period of Carl Panzram in the early 1900’s is when humane treatments were not enforced in prison systems. The treatment throughout Carl Panzram’s life was cruel, immoral, inhumane, and truly shows why humane treatment in all facilities is
There have been several women who have been able to escape from their captors and get help to recover from the traumas they endured. According to reporter, Naomi Martin (2013), “Clemmie Greenlee, a former victim of sex tr...
If the audience does not understand the manipulation of words (use of rhetoric), the idea will not get put across to the extent that the author wishes. In this account though, the author strategically targeted psychology professionals and future psychology professionals. This made the explanation of the text, to do further research on the subject of super max prisons and social isolation, clearly understood. If targeting an audience who did not believe social isolation was a prevalent issue, the whole persuasion of the article would be lost, and the reader would leave missing some sort of context, wondering what the article’s purpose was. The importance of who the audience is, is proven when Haney states that, despite the shared perspective that many psychologists have about the dangers of isolation and social exclusion, there has not been nearly enough research done into the psychological impact of enforced solitary confinement. This is the key to the targeted audience; it is Haney, targeting someone in the profession of psychology, and he is pulling out the problem behind the
Victims must adapt methods that secure their safety and survival. Traits of aggression and intimidation establish themselves in the victim’s personality for self-protection. In Grounds’ study (2004), fourteen of the eighteen men were terrorized by threats of assault and even death. Three of the men were victims of violence, with one being sexually assaulted and the other one stabbed. Inmates may cope with depression through withdrawal, self-mutilation, or suicide.
Symonds, J., & Huckshorn, K. A. (2004). SECLUSION & RESTRAINT Q&A/Response. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing & Mental Health Services , 42 (12), 8.
Since 2000, a total of 15 have died in custody, according to the advocacy group’s records. Of those 15 of whom have passed while in custody many of those deaths were results of suicides of detainees who suffered serious mental health issues that were not properly addressed in custody. In Cleveland and Rousseau’s article Mental Health Impact of Detention they argue that the implications such as mandatory detention is associated with high levels of psychiatric symptoms, which increase with time in detention and tend to be aggravated frequently. In a study conducted in the United States, after a median detention of 5 months, 86% of detainees showed clinical levels of depression, 77% had clinical anxiety and 50% had clinical post-traumatic stress disorder. A few months later, the mental health of those who were still detained had continued to deteriorate. The curtailment of physical mobility through indefinite detentions alone is sufficient to cause depression but mental states are also aggravated by the fact that detainees have little ability to make international phone calls, access to their funds, and access to legal
The term stockholm syndrome originates from the incident at Kreditbanken bank in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1973. Two robbers broke into the bank, killed the police, and took four hostages. During the next six days, the hostages were trapped in a bank vault (often at gunpoint) and was strapped with bombs. However, what surprised the police was when they tried to rescue them, the hostages fended them off and defended their captors instead. Even after they’ve been freed, one of the hostages helped supported those robbers financially and thus, the term “Stockholm Syndrome” was created.
Stockholm Syndrome is where a kidnapped victim becomes sympathetic with their abductor or in extreme cases, fall in love with them. The first documented case was August 23, 1973, a escaped prisoner walked into bank into named Stockholm in Sverigs Kreitbanken with a gun, where he held 4 bank employees hostage. He kept them captive for four days, while he held them; they became to form a bond with him, calling each other by their first names. On August 28, 1973 the bank robber surrendered to the authorities. As he was exiting the bank, the victims formed a protective circle around him and begged the policed not to inflict pain on him. At a later date one of the victims married him after he was released from prison. ( Westcott). The victim saw her captures point of view, and no longer feared him but sympathized with
Victimology puts first understanding the roles that the victims played in the crime and what caused them to be victimized, such as their actions and their behavior that took place during the crime. “The study of victimology is a fairly new subset in the study of criminology and emerged in the 1940s and 1950s. The early work of German scholar Hans von Hentig focused upon the need to examine the relationship between the victim and the criminal act” (Doerner & Lab, 2008). “He developed a classification typology of crime victims and argued that there were not only physical elements to consider (i.e. female, frail), but also various social and psychological disadvantages common to many crime victims” (Doerner & Lab, 2008). For example, when one has been in an abusive relationship for so long, they become so accustomed to what they are going through that it makes it so much more harder to leave their abuser, even if the abuse they experienced has been ongoing physical, emotional, or mental
When a person is abused, terror invades their mind and body. “’I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t even scream because it was very traumatic. You don’t know how to act,’ says Ladino, a rape victim” (Sacha 2). Being afraid of an abuser is one of the several reasons people choose not to speak up about their case. “’I imagine he didn’t feel like there was a way out,’ a psychologist said, adding that it seems the victim thought something worse would happen if he disobeyed his captors” (Poisson and Casey 3). A predator knows that sheer terror can keep their prey reigned in, and they use that to their advantage.