Thedore Bundy

Theodore Bundy

Kim

School or Institution Name (University at Place or Town, State)

Introduction

Theodore Bundy (or Ted Bundy) was an American Serial killer who confessed to have killed 36 women during his four years killing spree in the U.S. Theodore was born to an unwed mother and kept believing his grandparents to be their real parents and his mother to be his step sister. As his mother married his step father, Johnnie Bundy, he was given the name of his step father, and later was known as Ted Bundy. But he did a good job at school with him being naturally good looking resulted in an increase in his popularity and resulted in an increased self-esteem. Using methods of Victimology, there are a few things which are needed to be studied. After analyzing the case of Ted Bundy, we can cover a wide range of issues such as victimization and its causes, crime victims, consequences of the victimization and interaction of victims with the justice system and other social service programs and agencies, with the prevention of victimization. Using Victimology, the case of Ted Bundy can be analyzed as,

The Crime Victim

Ted Bundy was responsible for killing and sexually molesting a number of women and college girls, with the mental sickness so severe that he confessed on raping the corpse of the women he killed several times, sleeping with some of the dead bodies in his flat till they began to decay. The primary crime victims in the crime case of Ted Bundy were women and college girls ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"MX5sCHcS","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Sewell, 1985)","plainCitation":"(Sewell, 1985)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":341,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/PwL0F8bO/items/7ANBA5LK"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/PwL0F8bO/items/7ANBA5LK"],"itemData":{"id":341,"type":"article-journal","title":"An application of Megargee's Algebra of aggression to the case of theodore bundy","container-title":"Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology","page":"14-24","volume":"1","issue":"1","source":"Springer Link","abstract":"The case of Theodore Robert Bundy, a young man allegedly responsible for the murders of more than 36 women in five states, has captured the imagination of many people in current society. The killer resembles the “boynext-door” stereotype of an attractive, articulate young man. The women were most often college co-eds abducted from crowded areas or struck down while they were alone. The crimes themselves were brutal sexual assaults, with the bodies of the victims often discovered months later in uninhabited areas.Such crimes demand efforts on the part of crminologists and psychologists toward an understanding and, ultimately control of potential future behavior, Megargee's Algebra of Aggression, in which he attributes the propensity to commit violent acts to specific factors, offers one such framework of understanding. While theoretical and after-the-fact, it may aid comprehension of crimes which are currently incomprehensible.This paper applies Megargee's Algebra of Aggression to the crimes of Theodore Robert Bundy. It seeks to explain Bundy's actions in terms of his instigation to aggression, habit strengths which encouraged continued violent acts, inhibitions which may have limited some of his activity, and situational factors which fostered violence as an acceptable response. It is based on a review of the literature deading with Bundy and the author's own involvement as an investigator in one of Bundy's crimes, the Chi Omega murders at Florida State University.","DOI":"10.1007/BF02809196","ISSN":"1936-6469","journalAbbreviation":"JPCP","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Sewell","given":"James D."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1985",3,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Sewell, 1985).

The Causes of Victimization

He met a girl with whom he fell in love with, while studying in the University of Washington, Stephanie Brooks, belonging to a rich family. The biggest blow on Ted’s life was when after graduation in the year 1968, Stephanie decided to part ways with him. This blow is considered to be one of the basic reasons which led Ted to follow the path which he did ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"labwN6qK","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Simons, 2001)","plainCitation":"(Simons, 2001)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":344,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/PwL0F8bO/items/9GCUQMQK"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/PwL0F8bO/items/9GCUQMQK"],"itemData":{"id":344,"type":"article-journal","title":"Antisocial personality disorder in serial killers: The thrill of the kill","container-title":"The Justice Professional","page":"345-356","volume":"14","issue":"4","source":"Taylor and Francis+NEJM","abstract":"Serial killing is a heinous crime that is difficult to understand. Sadistic serial murderers often rape, torture, and brutalize their victims before the murder even occurs. This paper addresses the motives behind such inhumane acts. By researching how the killer's abusive childhood led to the sadistic need for power and control, one can better understand how the individual developed the antisocial personality disorder. This paper also offers solutions that might help reduce the development of serial killers and the killings they are responsible for.","DOI":"10.1080/1478601X.2001.9959630","ISSN":"0888-4315","shortTitle":"Antisocial personality disorder in serial killers","author":[{"family":"Simons","given":"Cassandra L."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2001",12,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Simons, 2001). It resulted in Ted to drop out of college, during which he was struck with another blow, which acted as the cherry on top, as he came to know about his mother, with whom he had lived her treating her as his sister. After these two blows, he was devastated but he stood up and to prove his mother and Brooks wrong, he indulged in his studies again, pursuing the field of his choice, i.e., psychology. Brooks stayed in his mind throughout this era even after the breakup and all that had happened between them. He met with Brooks again in the year 1973 and his transformation amazed her. His fortunes had grown, and they started again, with Bundy being in a relationship with one other woman. Things got serious and while Brooks was making up her mind to marry Bundy, he ended up everything with her, disappearing and ignoring her completely, taking revenge from her the same way which she did years ago. Little comfort was achieved through this revenge, and from there he started off with his killing spree, sexually abusing women and killing many of them at the same time.

While considering the causes of victimization, one has to analyze if there were any mistakes from the victim’s side leading to such an incident, and taking such mistakes into consideration while analyzing any case. In case of Ted Bundy, it can be observed that his mental sickness led him to act as a disable citizen, utilizing crutches for movement and asking college girls and women for help, who either due to the faith in humanity, or trapped in his charming looks, helped him with his bags which he couldn’t carry while faking his disability. He used to strike them with a pipe as he reached with those women to his car, kidnapping them as he handcuffed them, leading to sexual abuse and killing them off in the end. One interesting thing to note is that Ted chose women who resembled with Brooks. Hence, the ending of relationship between Brooks and Ted can be taken as one of the reasons Ted chose this path ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"2yvHLrOO","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Geberth & Turco, 1997)","plainCitation":"(Geberth & Turco, 1997)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":342,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/PwL0F8bO/items/WTE5C2HT"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/PwL0F8bO/items/WTE5C2HT"],"itemData":{"id":342,"type":"article-journal","title":"Antisocial Personality Disorder, Sexual Sadism, Malignant Narcissism, and Serial Murder","container-title":"Journal of Forensic Science","page":"49-60","volume":"42","issue":"1","source":"www.astm.org","DOI":"10.1520/JFS14067J","ISSN":"0022-1198","journalAbbreviation":"JFS","language":"English","author":[{"family":"Geberth","given":"V. J."},{"family":"Turco","given":"R. N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1997",1,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Geberth & Turco, 1997).

Crime Victim and Criminal Justice System

The crime victims in case of Ted were not sufficient to be a witness of what Ted Bundy did to them, as they were all killed at the end by Ted. But the witnesses which reported about Ted’s suspicious behavior were not taken serious due to Ted being a popular figure, acting as a Republican activist. The criminal justice system also failed as Ted escaped through custody several times, due to which many of the lives were lost as he kept on his path of killing women and girls as he escaped ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"XkjUmZMV","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Mello, 1990)","plainCitation":"(Mello, 1990)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":339,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/PwL0F8bO/items/GRF6KHVL"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/PwL0F8bO/items/GRF6KHVL"],"itemData":{"id":339,"type":"article-journal","title":"On Metaphors, Mirrors, and Murders: Theodore Bundy and the Rule of Law","container-title":"New York University Review of Law & Social Change","page":"887","volume":"18","shortTitle":"On Metaphors, Mirrors, and Murders","journalAbbreviation":"N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change","author":[{"family":"Mello","given":"Michael"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1990"]],"season":"1991"}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Mello, 1990). Surprisingly, he was caught not as a serial killer, but an officer arresting him due to the stolen number plates installed on his car. After that, he was sentenced to death on an electric chair.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Geberth, V. J., & Turco, R. N. (1997). Antisocial Personality Disorder, Sexual Sadism, Malignant Narcissism, and Serial Murder. Journal of Forensic Science, 42(1), 49–60. https://doi.org/10.1520/JFS14067J

Mello, M. (1990). On Metaphors, Mirrors, and Murders: Theodore Bundy and the Rule of Law. New York University Review of Law & Social Change, 18, 887.

Sewell, J. D. (1985). An application of Megargee’s Algebra of aggression to the case of theodore bundy. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 1(1), 14–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02809196

Simons, C. L. (2001). Antisocial personality disorder in serial killers: The thrill of the kill. The Justice Professional, 14(4), 345–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/1478601X.2001.9959630