In this assignment the case study of Ted Bundy and how many biological, social and cognitive studies affect the perspective of criminals. In this case biological theories are our genetics and what we inherit from our parents and further on. These theories will be linked to Ted and if they affect how he performed the criminal acts. Introduction Ted Bundy is one of America’s most prolific serial killers who targeted brunette women in an attempt to get back at his ex-girlfriend, but also his mother who had lied about Ted’s paternity for a number of years. During Ted’s early life he went by the name of Theodore Robert Cowell. Ted’s violent side was thought to be inherited from his grandfather who had allegedly raped and abused Ted’s mother. This lead many to believe that Ted’s grandfather was actually his father. Ted in his early life also believed this, therefore he became a role model for Ted which shows why Ted would eventually carry this violent side in his life. Ted’s biological father was never known. This meant that she dated a string of men and one of these men became her husband and was a major influence on Ted and he lead him to change his name to Ted Bundy. In high school Ted suffered from acute shyness and he didn’t involve himself heavily in social activity. Ted eventually found the woman of his dreams whom he shared a passion for skiing. In the early stages of Ted’s relationship he tried desperately to impress her by obtaining a summer scholarship to Stamford.
Theodore "Ted" Bundy was one of the most notorious serial killers of the 20th century. His charm and intelligence made him somewhat of a celebrity during his trial and long after his execution in January of 1989. He was born in the shame of his mother, being told she was his sister when she gave birth out of wedlock. He was fascinated by the dark arts (macabre) as a child and drawn to knives.
Theodore Bundy aka “Ted” Bundy was born in Burlington, Vermont on November 24, 1946. His mover Eleanor Cowell was an unmarried 22-year-old woman when she gave birth to him. Eleanor’s parents were very religious individuals and his birth humiliated his grandparents. In order to hide the fact that he was an illegitimate child Ted was raised as and adopted son to his grandparents and was told that his mother was his sister. A few years later his mother and him moved to Tacoma, Washington and in 1951 she married Johnnie Bundy and had several children in the following years.
In fact, Bundy wasn’t extremely intelligent, and was not a genius, he only had an IQ of about 124, and he was not wildly successful in school, he was an average student who actually failed out of college after being dumped by a girlfriend, though he did return to school at a later date and finish (Michaud & Aynesworth, 2000). Even so, there was something that everyone could agree upon, Theodore Bundy was a deranged sociopath who became famous for murdering all of his victims, he was one of the serial killers to become extremely famous because of his killings, and some would say that he seemed happy to be getting all of the recognition (Michaud & Aynesworth, 2000). With articles written about him titled, “Bundy: The Man, The Myth, The Legend” he had truly become a legend (Caputi, 1989). These are only a few examples of how the media portrayed Bundy and how that caused the public to see and talk about
Abstract This paper examines two of America's most notorious serial killers, Ted Bundy, and Gary Ridgway, to explore the criminal behavior, criminological theories, and environmental and behavioral factors that contributed to their criminality. The analysis of the criminal behavior of both offenders was approached through the classical and positivist schools of thought, as well as through critical and interactionist theories. The findings suggest that Bundy and Ridgway exhibited different criminal behaviors, which can be explained by different criminological theories, as well as unique environmental and behavioral factors that contributed to their criminality.
Serial killers are often your typical guy next door, the only thing that makes him different is the fantasies of murder (Davis, J. 1998). Many different practitioners of criminology, psychology, and sociology try to explain the phenomenon of serial murder. They come up with different typologies of serial killers and reasons in which the killer might commit murder. One typology is that of organized and disorganized serial killers. According to David Canter, an organized serial killer will have an orderly life as shown in his crimes while disorganized killers will kill due to a stressful event in life.
In James Knoll’s article Serial Murder: A Forensic Psychiatric Perspective, which was published in the Psychiatric Times, Knoll takes a more psychological look, into murders and breaking down the concept of it. Firstly, he breaks into society’s amazement with serial murders, showing that there and multiple books, movies, and television shows that center around that theme. Even though serial murders is completely terrifying to most of the society, it is very rare compared to other crimes. From the last six decades, victims of homicides that are female have decreased. In the circumstance of serial murders, there has been documentation of the events for centuries, even going back to the sixteenth century.
This theory clearly rules out the effect of inherited or innate factors, and the last is the cognitive theory, which is based on how the perception of an individual is manifested into affecting his or her potential and capability to commit a crime. (Psychological theories of crime) Relating these theories to the case under study, it’s clear that the behaviour can be traced most times to faulty relationships in the family during the first years of
From birth, Manson’s initial name was "no name Maddox" and would not receive an official name until weeks after, when he was finally named Charles Milles Maddox (Blanco). His mother was later married for a short period of time to William Manson, whose name the boy later adopted but Manson had never really knew his real father (Blanco). After his notorious murders in the late 1960s, attorney Vincent Bugliosi asked for his official records, where he had once believed that his father was of African American ancestry, when Bugliosi the attorney asked, he emphatically denied his African American connection
Ted Bundy's life began as a lie and was filled with uncertainty, even after his capture, escape, re-capture and trial. Ted Bundy was brought into this world November 24,1946 to Eleanor Cowell. He was born when his mother, Eleanor Cowell, was only 22 and because of the fear of being an outcast and bringing
Because Ted’s mother was only a teenager when she had Ted, she passed herself off as his sister and made Ted believe that his grandparents were his parents to avoid controversy. It also has been said that Ted had watched his grandfather beat their dog while growing up, which might have enforced Ted to think that those kind of actions are acceptable. Later on, he found out about the truth about his real parents and it made him feel furious, livid and betrayed, which caused to to have a hard time trusting other people. Even though his mother was with him during his childhood years, his mother was not there when he needed her for emotional support. “Bundy had a difficult childhood—he had a strained relationship with his stepfather, and his shyness made him a frequent target of bullying.”
To be quite honest, I have never heard of James”Whitey” Bulger, and I was born and raised in the city of Boston. My family has resided in Boston since the early 1970’s and they have never mentioned him. Therefore, in order to write this paper and actually know who is James “Whitey” Bulger, I watched the recent film Black Mass which is based on his story. I found the Bulger story to be quite terrifying and unbelievable, I believe the film did a great job portraying his life as a gangster in Boston. Bulger story gives a perfect demonstration of the criminological theories we have discussed in class.
Today, there are proven facts that people who have parents that are criminals have a high chance of becoming criminals themselves. Not only can people become criminals because of their family but they can also become criminals because of the environment that they surround themselves in. This is where nature versus nurture comes into play. A person’s nature is their genetic makeup, basically meaning that a person’s nature is the genes they get from their parents. Also, a person’s genotype, one’s genetic makeup based on the sequencing of the nucleotides we term, provides them with physical traits that set the stage for certain behaviors (56).
Ted Bundy was a notorious serial murderer who’s reign of terror lasted from 1974 to 1978. Bundy was convicted of three homicides and was sentenced to death for all three charges. However, at the time of his execution, Bundy confessed to 30 murders however the exact number of victims is still unknown. Bundy’s crimes evolved over time but he was both a sexual sadist and a necrophiliac serial killer. At the beginning of his rampage, Bundy would sneak into the victims house in the middle of the night, violently attack them while they were sleeping with a blunt object and then Bundy would usually sexually assault them.
This essay will examine the case study of the convicted serial killer Gary Ridgway, who was eventually caught and convicted for the murders 48 women. Ridgway, went on a killing spree of women without getting caught for over two decades, he went on to become the Green River Killer (Reichert, 2004). The essay will explore and evaluate the characteristics including the attribution of Garry Ridgway’s horrific crimes. In the 1980s and 1990s Ridgway targeted prostitutes, runaway girls, hitchhikers and vulnerable women in the locality of where he lived in Washington State, USA (Reichert, 2004). It baffled the authorities as to how he was able to commit these crimes whilst working and living in the locality of his crimes however, he was not suspected
Furthermore, the psychology of criminal behavior, psychology, and criminology all have a primary objective of achieving an understanding of the variation in the criminal behavior of individuals (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Empirically, the study of variation in criminal behavior is done by the studying of covariates (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). The primary covariates that PCC studies are biological, social, and psychological (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Although, criminology tends to assess criminality at an aggregate level, in comparison to the psychology of criminal conduct’s focus on an individual level. Additionally, a psychology of criminal conduct involves applying what is learned by the studying of psychological information and methods to the predicting and influencing the propensity of criminal behavior on an individual