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Psychological factors underlying criminal behavior
Psychological factors underlying criminal behavior
Nature of a serial killer
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Ted Kaczynski a mathematical genius who was widely known as the Unabomber was responsible for over 16 domestic terrorist attacks, which resulted in three fatalities and injured 24 others. Over a span of 17 years he build handmade bombs and would either send them in the mail or deliver them to university professors or airline companies. I will be examining what lead Ted Kaczynski to carry out these attacks through the anomie criminology lens. Ted Kaczynski came from a nice family, he had a loving mother and father. His mother Wanda Kaczynski describes Ted as a typical young baby she says, “he was a bundle of joy.” She recalls when he would bounce around and chuckle typical healthy kid qualities. It was not until he was nine months old when
Ted's family knew there was something wrong with him ever since he was a baby. His mother said that he had strange lapses as a child where he would go silent and still. As he got older the "shut-downs" (as they became known as by his family,) started to be accompanied with rage. He never fit in with anybody his own age. For instance, when Ted was 10 years old, his father tried taking him to a boyscout meeting but Ted would not have anything to do with the other children, so his father gave up. The only thing Ted liked doing was reading and playing his trombone. Ted proved to be very smart and at the young age of 15 years, was given a scholarship to study Greek tragedy for the summer at the University of Chicago. Ted went to Harvard and graduated with a degree in Mathematics, when he was 20 years old. Ted was then offered a tenured-track job at the University of California and taught there until his abrupt resignation in 1969. His family knew nothing of his resignation until he showed up at his parents house to move in. Ted stayed with his parents for two years and during that time he had many low paying jobs, the first being a gardener at the local mall. In 1971, Ted's parents woke up to find Ted gone and only a note thanking them for letting him stay with them. The note was so short and to the point that his father thought that it he was going to commit suicide.
He was intelligent, articulate and handsome. During a gruesome killing spree, Ted Bundy slaughtered more than thirty five women within the span of five years, becoming one of the most notorious serial killers in American history. He grew up believing that his grandparents were his parents and his unwed mother to be his older sister. He was not very good at building relationships and had a lot of conflict with his stepfather and enjoyed the terms of violence and sex as a child. Ted shoplifted during his teenage years and enjoyed being above the law. He was generally very shy and gained a lot of popularity and self esteem in high school because of his good looks. It was there that he met his high school girlfriend Stephanie Brooks with whom he become obsessed, but the relationship did not last very long as she did not feel the same way for him so she broke up with him. Depressed by the break up, Ted dropped out of college and returned home with his family where he found out the truth about his biological mother. This left Ted in a state of confusion about his identity and he felt betrayed by the women in his life. He went back to high school where he and Stephanie got back together but right after she agreed to marry him, he broke up with her to seek revenge. After this charade his killing spree began, luring young women with lies, abducting, raping, physically abusing and killing them.
the two. Shouldn't we also look inward, and see if in any way a love of ature
Ferguson, Paul. “Ted Kaczynski: Evil Man, or Tortured Soul?” Time Warner, 2000. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.
I chose to analyze the case of Ted Bundy because when I was in high school I saw the movie Ted Bundy. At the time that I watched this movie I was already interested in going to college and majoring in psychology. I wanted to know why people do the things they do. Going into this subject I find everything about Ted Bundy’s case intriguing. Throughout the course of this class I have learned so many theories and risk factors that explain why criminals do the things they do. I feel like writing about Ted Bundy and doing research on his case could benefit my future career in psychology by gaining knowledge in the field of criminology and all types of risk factors. This could make it easier for me to spot out what kind of risk factors are found in the younger generation. I want help avoid any risk factors that may cause adolescents to turn to criminal behavior. My goal in the future is to obtain a degree in psychology because I have always had a passion to help people that cannot help themselves. I want people to realize that everything starts with our thought processing and what we think, and what we observe repeatedly, we eventually become; watching family, friends, TV, listening to music we all learn from these things, if we watch for so long it is possible that these things could become a part of our character. Our minds are so powerful that if we can start by learning how to control our thought process, we can control the way we behave. Within the scope of this essay I have chosen two theories that I believe could provide us with insight in the mind of Ted Bundy.
A normal day in the city of Oklahoma on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, an anti-government man, and his accomplice took the lives of 168 innocent lives and injured many more. McVeigh’s hatred of the federal government and the handling of the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents led him to commit one of the most deadliest acts of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
The intent of this study is to determine exactly how much responsibility Ted Kaczynski must accept for his actions as the UNABOMBER. The essential problem of the situation is that Kaczynski claims complete responsibility, but he has been ruled mentally ill by the State. He adamantly denies his illness, stating that social maladjustment, although technically a sickness, is distinct from an organic based illness, and therefore within his realm of free will. We will also address the role his brother and sister-in-law played in the tragedy, their motives, and the impact their pleas have brought to bear on the dilemma.
Theodore "Ted" Bundy’s mother, Eleanor Cowell was twenty-two years old and unmarried when she had her son Theodore. Bundy was raised as the adopted son of his grandparents and was told that his mother was his sister. Eleanor moved with Ted to Tacoma, Washington, a few years later. Bundy showed an unusual interest in the macabre at an early age. Around the age of 3, he became fascinated by knives. Bundy was a shy, but bright child who did well in school, but did not get along with his peers. As a teenager, Bundy began to steal from other people and businesses.
The biggest manhunt against a criminal in U.S. history has been to catch serial killer Theodore John Kaczynski. Ted Kaczynski, sowed terror throughout the country for almost two decades. From 1978 to 1996, Kaczynski sent homemade explosive devices to various Universities, airlines facilities, and people related to those, as part of his anti-technological campaign. That's where he gets the nickname of "The Unabomber"; “un”-derivative from universities, and letter “a”- from airlines. The "Unabomber" killed three people and seriously injured other twenty-three victims, (Esoteric Nation, 2013; Winton & Scott, 2007). Something that had always been a mystery is why Kaczynski chose those particular places and people. Psychological analyzes suggest that the reasons for such actions can be traced to early life events, (Cooijmans, 2013; Winton & Scott, 2007).
Since we are talking about the life story of Ted Bundy, let’s start at the beginning when he born. He was born in the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers in Burlington, Vermont. He did not have a father, which meant that his mother had to work long hours and did not have much money to support the both of them. For that reason, Ted and his mother went to live with Ted’s grandmother. When
Between 1940 and 1956, a profound killer known as the Mad Bomber disturbed New York City’s streets. For sixteen years, the Mad Bomber evaded New York City’s police officers and planted over thirty small bombs in public places. In 1956, the infuriated investigators decided to ask for the help of a psychiatrist, James Brussel. Brussel analyzed the notes and photos that were taken at the scene of the incidents. These objects allowed him to come up with a detailed description of the suspect: He would be in his 50’s, unmarried, self-educated, and foreign. He would also be paranoid and live in Connecticut. Brussel proposed that the suspect had a personal vendetta against the target of the first bomb, Con Edison.
Kaczynski, Theodore, Givseppe Zangara. American Villains: Volume 2. Hackensack, New Jersey: Salem Press, INC, 2008. Print.
“I understand what they felt in Oklahoma City. I have no sympathy for them,” a remorseless Timothy McVeigh told a Dan Herbeck, author of American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing. Timothy McVeigh was a sort of social outcast who found comfort with the idea of many white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and members of the Aryan Nations. He grew up living in the fantasy of comics and fictional literary works. He was enthralled with guns from a very young age, that carried over into adulthood. He flew through the ranks in the army but was rejected by the rangers. After he was rejected he came back and did not fit into society. McVeigh began going to gun shows; at these events he began to talk to these radicals of all kinds, he
“At first I had come to the conclusion that non-violent reformist techniques wouldn’t result in anything (Interview with Ted).This turned me to use violent means such as sending bombs to people that I didn’t even know, but I believed had the biggest influence in this modernistic world(Lardner, Adams), because I realized that if I wanted anything done I had to grab people’s attention and that was why a manifesto from the infamous Unabomber would be
Ted Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont on November 24, 1946- January 24, 1989 (age 42). Eleanor Louise Cowell gave birth to Ted at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers. Soon after Ted was born his biological mom moved back in with her parents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but for many of Ted’s childhood years he was told that his grandparents were his biological parents and his mother Eleanor was his sister. Five years later, Louise and Ted then moved to Tacoma to live with her newly married husband Johnnie Bundy, and he worked as a military cook. (Keppel, 1995)