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UNIT
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AAYUSHI
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NAME OF LECTURER
NATALIE GATELY
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10433941
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30/08/16
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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this case study is to consider Ted Bundys criminal record
through investigating significant life events in correspondence with psychological
theories and research. Beginning with an opening into the basis of Bundys criminal
life, the case study then discusses both the legal and behavioural definitions of his
offences. Bundys criminal behaviour may be explained by the inferred diagnosis of
antisocial personality disorder. The causes behind Bundys criminal behaviour are
thus examined using psychological literature.
This case study will focus on the dismissive attachment theory, operant learning and
reinforcement, displaced aggression theory and the effects of violent media in
explaining Bundys criminal career. Such research is considered in unification with
Bundys significant life events, comprising his fathers rejection prior to his birth,
misperception of family figures, separation from his parents and exposure to violent
media as a teenager, to conclude the reasoning behind his criminal behaviour.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.6
2. Legal definition of offences7
3. Clinical definition of offences... .7
4. History of offender and psychological explanation..9
5. Conclusion...14
6. References.. 15
Introduction
Theodore Robert Cowell, commonly known as Ted Bundy was born on
November 24 1946 in Burlington Vermont, to Louise Cowell. He was an American
th
serial murderer who brutally killed and sexually attacked thirty female victims. Bundy
was notorious for the nature of his crimes, as he faked injuries and handicaps as a
means to gain the victims trust before murdering them. He persistently returned to a
number of his victims to engage in sexual activities with their deceased bodies until
they had deteriorated. Whilst travelling the country searching for his victims, Bundy
escaped lawful authority on two events before served with capital punishment in
January 1989.
Bundy was known to be canny and achieved well in his law and psychology
courses; however since an early age experienced severe emotional issues and a lacked
the ability to socially engage in others. Despite the faade of being socially
interactive, Bundy favoured his own company and found it difficult to associate with
others, especially after his first breakup. The dismissal by his former girlfriend is
suggested to have triggered Bundys severe frustration and anger, indicating that his
first murder was a result of this rejection and the rage associated with that trigger.
This case study will examine some significant events in Bundys life using the
Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), psychological theories
and research in an attempt to explain why he committed these crimes. The
psychological principles covered include personality disorders, attachment theory, and
operant learning and positive reinforcement theory.
B.
C.
(2009), Bundy was caught for auto theft and burglary two times as juvenile.
10
inferred that this visual triggered Bundys behaviour of lurking around homes in
search of females undressing themselves, also fuelled by the uptake of profuse
consumption of liquor (Michaud et al, 1999). Bundy has stated that once you become
addicted to it, and I look at this as a kind of addiction, you look for more potent, more
explicit, more graphic kinds of material (Shapiro, 2005).
At the age of four, Bundy was separated from his grandparents and Louise
decided to move to Washington to start a new life. In his early teens Bundy came to
know about his illegitimacy and later found out that his sister was his mother.
Research proposes that this family dysfunction and neglect caused Bundy to search
comfort within him, starting with masturbation and sexual fantasies which feels
pleasurable but enables him with a sense of control (Whitman, 2004). Additionally,
Bundys separation from his grandparents and discovering the truth about his familial
roles, contribute to the formation of his inability to developed interpersonal relations.
As a result of their environment, serial killers are often damaged psychologically
(Carbajal, 2010), in Bundys case fearing loss or separation generates strong feelings
of anxiety and rage in the offender, resulting in his violent actions (Bartol et al.,
2011).
Bundys first relationship was with Stephanie and due to his strong feelings
of love for her was he invested a significant amount of effort trying to impress her.
However Bundys girlfriend felt he was inadequate and had no hope for the future,
thus she broke up with him. This rejection is believed to have triggered an
accumulation of fear, anger, resentment and frustration which he emitted by engaging
in violent acts of rape and murder. Literature supports this conjecture stating that
serial murderers begin to kill as a result of increasing feelings of rejection, frustration,
anger and powerlessness (Liebman, 1989; Whitman and Akutagawa, 2004).
11
Accordingly, the women Bundy violently engaged him physically resembled his
former girlfriend Stephanie.
In his interview with James Dobson Bundy said that From time to time,
we would come across books of a harder nature - more graphic. This also included
detective magazines, etc., and I want to emphasize this. The most damaging kind of
pornography - and Im talking from hard, real, personal experience - is that that
involves violence and sexual violence. Like an addiction, you keep craving something
which is harder and gives you a greater sense of excitement, until you reach the point
where the pornography only goes so far - that jumping off point where you begin to
think maybe actually doing it will give you that which is just beyond reading about it
and looking at it (Bundy & Dobson, 2004). Most of the general public believes that
rapists are psychopathic, sexually frustrated individuals, who are unable to control
their sexual urges (Allison, Adams, Bunce, Gilkerson, & Nelson, 1992). Bundy would
go back to the victims dead bodies, and perform sexual activities with them until it
was physically impossible. Also, Bundy forced his girlfriend Meg, to act like a dead
body while he performed sexually. (Rule,1998). Necrophilia can be explained as
sexual arousal triggered by a dead body (Hucker, 2005). Muderers frequently involve
in necrophilia, as it allows them to feel absolute power over the body of victim
(Carbajal, 2010). Other research also shows that exposure to explicit violent content
increases the level of sexual aggression toward women (Shope, 2004).
Bowlby (1969) was the founder of Attachment theory which captivated
mind of researchers (Ainsworth, 1979; Birnbaum, 2007; Bowlby, 1969; Burton &
Lyn, 2004). According to the attachment , babies develop connections to a parental
figure to secure their endurance (Birnbaum, 2007). Various connection styles will be
formed based upon the excellence of the relationship between the new born and the
12
13
2011). The expectancy theory argues that a persons performance level is based on
their belief that behaving in a meticulous way will escort to a given result (Bartol &
Bartol, 2011). For instance, people constantly seek for power, control, and security
when they think of engaging in illegal conduct (Bartol & Bartol, 2011). The operant
learning and positive reinforcement theory supports Bundys criminal behaviour
through the contentment he got from sexual pleasure by assaulting his victims,
whereas the expectancy theory relates his need for control over women.
Aggression is displaced when the object is naive of any misconduct but is merely in
the wrong situateion at the wrong time (Bushman, 2005). In Bundys life this theory
could be associated as he faced rejection from Stephanie, someone he loved and she
was the only person he had been able to form a relation after issues with his family. It
is believed that it was after Stephanie broke up with him, Bundy started committing
crime.
14
Conclusion
Bundys behaviour in conjunction with the psychological literature discussed
indicates that his criminal actions were caused by an accumulation of anger,
resentment and lack of self-control. It can be concluded that the dismissal of a father
figure, violence modelled by his grandfather, the absence of a motherly figure and
rejection from his former girlfriend were the core of Bundys aggression. There are
various psychopathic characteristics evident within Bundy inferred from the available
literature which could have been exacerbated by his youth obsession on violent and
sexual pictures. Additionally, the dismissive attachment theory supports the inferred
diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, as he was never able to secure any
relations in his life. The displaced aggression theory supports Bundys behaviour as
his victims resembles his ex-girlfriend but had nothing to do with Bundy. The
psychological theories and related literature support the view that certain personality
traits, influenced by environmental factors, can increase the likelihood of a person
developing criminal tendencies. Thus Bundys criminal record can to some extent be
explain by a clinical diagnosis and the environment of which he developed in,
specifically involving the lack of emotional connections and immense rejections.
15
References
Ainsworth,
M.
D.
S.
(1979).
Infant-mother
attachment.
American
[Radio
node_id=1515802
interview].
Retrieved
from
http://everything2.com/index.pl?
16
Hucker,
S.
J.
(2005).
Necrophilia.
Retrieved
from
Web
site:http://www.forensicpsychiatry.ca/paraphilia/necro.htm
Leibman, F.H. (1989). Serial Murderers: Four Case Histories. Federal
Probation. 53(4), 41 44.
Levy, T., & Orlans, M. (2004). Attachment Disorder, Antisocial Personality
and Violence. Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association. 7(4), p. 18.
Michaud, S., & Aynesworth, H. (1999). The Only Living Witness: The True
Story of Serial Sex Killer Ted Bundy. Irving, Texas: Authorlink Press.
Nelson, Polly (1994). Defending the devil: My story as Ted Bundys last
lawyer. New York: William Morrow.
Rule, A. (1980). The stranger beside me. New York: W. W. Norton.
Rule, A. (2000). The Stranger Beside Me. (Paperback; updated 20th
anniversary ed.) NY: Signet
Rule, A. (2009). The Stranger Beside Me. (Paperback; updated 2009 ed.) NY:
Signet
Shapiro, Ben (2005). Porn Generation. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing.
p. 160.
17
Shope, J. H. (2004). When words are not enough: The search for the effect of
pornography on abused women. Violence Against Women, 10, 56-72. doi:
10.1177/1077801203256003
Whitman, T. A ., & Akutagawa. (2004). Riddles in serial murder: A
synthesis. Aggression and violent behaviour. 9(6), 693-703