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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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