Exemplification Essay: The Stockholm Syndrome Case

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Stockholm syndrome 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. The first case that I looked at was one of the most famous cases of Stockholm syndrome. Patty Hearst was kidnapped on February 4, 1974 from the apartment she shared with her boyfriend Stephen Weed. The kidnappers were Donald DeFreeze, Bill Harris, Emily Harris and Willie Wolfe. This was a well-planned combat exercise …show more content…

Patty would have also, helped bring out evidence in her case that proved she was not acting of her own free will when the Hibernia bank robbery occurred. Patty was the only one charged in the robbery. In Jaycee’s case, she was ready to testify as well. Jaycee had already met with the prosecutor and stated that she was willing to testify. Although she was concerned for her two daughters, because they would have to testify as well. Again, there was no sign of loyalty for her captors, when it came to the injustices that were placed upon her. Jaycee, did feel loyalty to Phillip as her children’s father, but it stopped there. When it came to Nancy, she called her “Just as evil as Phillip” (ABC News, Diane Sawyer, YouTube July 12, 2011

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