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Pippin 1
Mia Pippin
Instructor: Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
April 2nd, 2015
Shut In and Locked Out: Exploring the Mind of a Kidnap Victim
She met Phillip Garrido on June 10, 1991. Their paths crossed when he was
driving down her street in South Lake Tahoe, California. Three years later they had their
first child, three years after that they had another. On August 26, 2009 their relationship
came to an end when Garrido was imprisoned. Her name was Jaycee Lee Dugard, and her
18 years of captivity that began with her kidnapping at the age of 11 ended on this
August afternoon (Dugard).
Jaycee Lee Dugard’s abduction is a well-known and discussed case. Although
Dugard was definitely pulled away from her own family, it appeared that she found a new
family with Garrido and his wife. In fact when Dugard walked into the police station on
August 26, it was to defend Garrido when he violated his parole by having 2 young girls
(Dugard and Garrido’s daughters) in his home. Rather than accusing him right then and
there of kidnapping her she focused on only making sure he was released (Dugard).
Through my research of Dugard’s story from both her case file and her autobiography it
was evident that Dugard was definitely aware that she had been taken from her parents
and that she knew the continual sexual abuse she faced was wrong, but rather than
attempt to escape Dugard tried her hardest to make the best out of her new living
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arrangement, even going as far as to help Garrido run his out of home business. All things
considered, it became evident to me that Dugard had become mentally altered by the
experience that she went through. In order to analyze the actions of Dugard during and
after her abduction, I wanted to look at the psychological state of similar long-term
kidnap victims. I believe that without the help of therapists or doctors that the mental
state of an abduction victim will not only take over their lives, but will be the ending of it.
To look further into the state of mind of other long-term kidnap victims however, I had to
take a step back and research kidnappings throughout all of the United States.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (which
gathers their reports directly from the U.S. Department of Justice reports) there are
800,000 children reported missing ever year. To break this down further, one needs to
consider the fact that approximately 203,000 of these reportedly missing children are
actually taken by family members and many are runaways so that leaves around 58,200
that are kidnaped by non-family members. Fortunately even though these are extremely
high statistics only about 200 of them qualify as the type of kidnapping situations that
typically make the news, (ex; asking for ransom, killing the children, or intentions to
keep these children permanently) which were the ones that I needed to look at to compile
evidence about how widespread Stockholm Syndrome is. Looking even further into these
reports, about 43% suffer fates such as long term kidnapping, and it is these cases that I
have made the basis of my research (Falcon).
What is Stockholm syndrome?
The common factor behind almost all long-term kidnappings is a development of
Stockholm syndrome or conditions very similar to it. Stockholm syndrome can best be
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described as the psychological state when a hostage begins to feel such strong empathy
towards their kidnappers that they will defend them and make excuses for them when
they are abusive. Stockholm syndrome is something that has always been around, but it
gets its name from the Norrmalmstorg bank robbery of Kreditbanken that took place in
Stockholm, Sweden. The Stockholm bank robbery took place in August 1973. During
this bank robbery a group of 4 bank employees were held hostage for a period of 6 days
by an escaped prisoner named Janne Olsson. Olsson barricaded himself, his partner, and
the hostages in the banks vault. The employees had such close and constant contact with
the bank robbers that it was obviously evident that they began to feel empathetic towards
them. In fact they had formed such a strong emotional bond with their captors that they
astounded law enforcement by defending the men after they were released. Even previous
to their release the hostages didn’t want to be rescued because they felt that they were in
a way similar to the bank robbers and they viewed the whole situation as an ‘us versus
them’ scenario (Hanbury). According to the FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System,
8% of kidnap victims do develop Stockholm syndrome.
What Causes Stockholm?
Stockholm syndrome is not only found in the cases of kidnap victims, but it’s
more common in today’s society in cases of soldiers in combat and people who suffer
from domestic abuse. Even with all of these different situations causing Stockholm,
unfortunately there is not much research on Stockholm Syndrome as a whole. The
American Psychological Journal entry that I looked into that studies the fact or myth of
Stockholm provided a list of four usual precursors that may cause Stockholm Syndrome.
The precursors are as follows; 1) if there is a perceived threat to survival and belief that
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the threat will be carried out 2) if the captive perceive some small kindness from the
captor in the context of terror 3) if the hostage experiences isolation from perspectives
other than those of the captor 4) if the hostage has a perceived inability to escape
(Namnyak, et. al). 6) Once I had this list of general causes of Stockholm, I looked back at
the case of Jaycee Lee Dugard to see if these precursors had their part in her development
of what I have to come to believe was in fact Stockholm. 1) When Dugard was first taken
Garrido informs her that she must be quiet so she wouldn’t be injured by his very
aggressive dogs (Dugard 13). 2) Throughout her time with Garrido, Dugard was given
many gifts such as pets and a television. 3) Garrido constantly told Dugard that the things
he did to her were caused by thoughts in his head placed their bad ‘bad angels’ and that
she was helping him get rid of his sickness. 4) From the beginning of her captivity
Dugard was locked into multiple different buildings, therefore giving her a sense of an
inability to escape. With clear evidence of each and every one of the 4 precursors in the
case of Jaycee Dugard, it is strong supported evidence of how and why she in fact
developed Stockholm. I have compared these same results with those of multiple other
kidnapping cases and just as Dugard’s they had signs of most if not all of the precursors.
As helpful as Graham’s set of precursors were, unfortunately there are not many
additional scholarly articles or studies on the formation of Stockholm. Due to this fact
some would say I couldn’t judge the dependability of Graham’s ideas or place much
value on it. But I would like to defend my judgment by arguing that if his ideas weren’t
stable that there wouldn’t be the extent of evidence of them in so many different cases.
Graham’s logic may have flaws but it’s the strongest basis we currently have to defend
Stockholm.
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Recovery?
When a long-term kidnap victim attempts to recover from the months to years of
abuse that they have faced, there are two main types of recovery that they go through.
The first in recovery back into society, more of a physical recovery, and then of course
there is the psychological recovery which is completely mental. The people that have the
hardest time recovering are those that were kidnapped as children and grew up while still
being held hostage. The reasoning behind this is that fact children’s brains are susceptible
to change based on their surroundings and living conditions especially those that
experience trauma at a young age. This also helps to explain why many kidnap victims
don’t take the risk of trying to escape even when an opportunity presents itself; it all has
to do with their brain formation. When we try to help these people shift back into a life in
normal society, there are a few things that prove more beneficial. One of the most
important things during this recovery is to keep a healthy distance from the media.
Although everyone else jumps at the chance to hear the first hand story from any type of
victim, all of the pestering and attention will cause a victim to retreat into themselves,
therefore putting a halt on their adaptation back into society.
Psychological recovery is definitely the hardest because so much has mentally
been taken from these victims. Kluger states that “something breaks the mind and will of
anyone so stripped of autonomy” The typical mental conditions caused by being held
hostage are impaired memory, denial, shock, anxiety, and a sense of helplessness. One
can not give an exact regiment for what will help to repair one’s mental state, but
continual visits to a psychiatrist/therapist and the constant support of friends and family
are definitely beneficial.
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I would also like to touch on the regimen of pills that I suspect are commonly
provided to help ‘heal’ these victims of their mental problems. I don’t believe in the
effectiveness of these pills at all. Due to the fact that they target things like depression,
anxiety, or lack of sleep I fail to see the benefits of them when it comes to Stockholm
Syndrome. As helpful as the pills may seem at the time to shut down the feelings of the
abduction victim, they are just suppressing the problem rather than fixing it.
In Conclusion
As numbers of those being kidnapped, taken hostage by foreign militaries,
and those entering in abusive relationships continue to be on a constant rise,
Stockholm Syndrome and similar mental states will continue to be a problem. The
amount of previous studies done on Stockholm is miniscule, at that. I have spent
days and hours attempting to find a solid case on what produces Stockholm
Syndrome and what steps one can take to recover from the mental damage that
caused the Stockholm in the first place. It pains me to realize that if someone I knew
where to develop Stockholm this very day there would basically be nothing that
could be done for them, even by professionals.
It is undeniable that a much stronger stance must be taken on not only the
prevention of abduction but also on helping those that have experienced a change in
their psychological state due to abuse from these events. I feel most strongly about
this when it comes to our military because how effective can our men be in battle if
they are mentally ‘locked in’. Future psychological research will honestly be the only
key to unlocking the secrets of the brains of kidnap victims.
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Works Cited
Dugard, Jaycee Lee. A Stolen Life: A Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print.
Falcon, Gabe. "Raw Data: Kidnapping Statistics." CNN. Cable News Network, 15 Jan.
2007. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.
Hanbury, Raymond, and David Romano. "Adjusting to Life after Being Held Hostage or
Kidnapped." Apa.org. American Psychological Association, July 2013. Web. 10
Mar. 2015.
Kluger, Jeffrey. "The Mind of the Kidnap Victim: How They Endure and Recover”
TIME.com. TIME Inc., 8 May 2013. Web 10 Mar. 2015
Namnyak, M, et.al "‘Stockholm Syndrome’: Psychiatric Diagnosis or Urban Myth?" Acta
Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 117.1 (2008): 4-11. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
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