Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith - Research Paper Example

? Case Study: Susan Smith Case Study: Susan Smith of the case Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith is an American womanwho was convicted for murdering her two children, three year old Michael Daniel Smith and fourteen month old Alexander Tyler Smith. The case attained global attention, because first she claimed that a black man had hijacked her car and kidnapped her sons. Later Smith disclosed that she had been affected by mental health problems that caused troubles to her judgment. She made dramatic appearances on the media pleading for the rescue of her children. After nine days of globally publicized investigation and intensive nationwide search Smith confessed on 3rd November that she had let her car to drown in the John D. Long Lake with her two sons inside the car. Several notable inconsistencies in Smith’s statements relating to the case assisted investigators to prove the truth. Allegedly, she wanted to abandon her children in order to continue an affair with a rich local person who did not like to look after Smith’s children. During the trial, Susan’s defense lawyers highlighted her childhood tragedies and the resulted mental health problems including depression and suicidal thoughts. However, the prosecution argued that Susan’s only concern was her own aspirations and she treated her children as obstacles to getting what she needed. Smith was sentenced to life in prison for killing her two sons. She was very responsive throughout the course of the trial except when she was asked about her children. Sometimes when her sons were mentioned, Susan sobbed and shook her head as if she did not believe the death of her sons. Smith was locked up in the Administrative Segregation Unit in the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia where she had sex with two prison guards (Lt. Huston Cagle and Capt. Alfred R. Rowe, Jr). As a result, the guards were punished and Smith is currently in Greenwood prison. Referring to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, parole may be permitted for Smith on 4th November 2024. Psychological History Although it is a case of extreme cruelty done by a mother to her children, it appears that Susan deserves some sympathy as she had such a pitiable past. The marriage life of her father Harry Smith and mother Linda Smith involved frequent conflict and violent confrontation. Susan’s half-brother Michael Smith had attempted suicide once before she entered elementary school. Her parents terminated their marriage relationship when Susan was only six years old; and shortly after the final divorce decree Susan’s father committed suicide. Within two weeks of the divorce, Linda married to a businessman named Russell. The divorce of her parents, suicide of her biological father, and remarriage of her mother had greatly affected the small Susan although the effects were not immediate (Bailey & Chermak). Susan’s life at Russell’s home involved a lot of internal conflicts and havoc. More importantly, she was sexually abused by her step-father during her adolescence. She made a suicide attempt at the age of thirteen by taking overdose of aspirin. During her high school ages, she worked for a supermarket where she engaged in sexual relationship with several coworkers and married coworker David Smith. Susan became pregnant from her first relationship with a married man and the pregnancy subsequently led to abortion. Eventually, this relationship broke up and she became depressed. Consequently, she made a second suicide attempt with an overdose of aspirin and Tylenol. After some years, she met and married David Smith, the father of her two children. However, their marriage life involved a great deal of stress, tension, and internal conflicts because their views about the life were extremely different. Although the couple made several attempts to reconcile their chaotic marriage, this relationship ended within three weeks of the birth of their second child, Alex. Eventually, Susan fell into a relationship with Tom Findlay, the son of her new boss, and she experienced a great happiness in this relationship. However, Findlay was not interested to continue this affair because of her children and he informed Susan this matter in a letter. Around the same time, Susan’s marriage with David Smith was ended legally. Although Susan vehemently tried to reconcile her relationship with Findlay, he refused to accept her with children. Therefore, Susan was really devastated at this time and this situation ended up in the murder of her two sons. Susan’s psychological history points out that she was dreadfully affected by sexual molestations by her step-father Russell and her continuous failures in relationships. In addition, she had never enjoyed a stable feeling of security or hope in her life although she had maintained relationship with several men. Even though Susan found satisfaction in the affair with Findlay, he refused to marry her due to the reason that she is mother to two children. This issue terribly affected Susan’s mind and therefore she was in a condition to do anything to retain the relationship with Findlay. Hence, a number of psychological, behavioral, and cognitive factors have contributed to the offender’s (Susan) criminality. Theoretical Perspective Theoretical models including psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theory, the behaviorist/social learning theory, and the social cognitive theory can be related to the Susan Smith case. The psychoanalytic theory states that human behavior is deterministic and it is greatly governed by biological drivers. Evidently, these biological drivers influenced Susan to have sexual relationship with a number of people in her life. As this theory observes, some worse childhood experiences of Susan had negatively affected her mental functioning when she grew to an adult. The social learning theory tells that models represent a primary source for learning new behaviors and accomplishing the desired behavioral change. From the Susan Smith case, it seems that Susan’s mother has greatly influenced her behavior learning process. Susan’s mother was never willing to lead a normal family life and Susan also followed her mother’s way of living when she became an adult. According to an explanation, “the social cognitive theory states that behavior change is a result of setting personal goals based on self-efficacy expectations for performing the behavior and of the outcome expectations associated with the results of engaging in the behavior” (Lorig, 2001, p.32). Since Susan was a victim of dependent personality disorder, she had no self-efficacy expectations and therefore she could not achieve a positive behavior change. Cognitive neoassociation, a theory of aggression, states that aversive event like frustration or provocation can produce negative effects on individuals. The case scenario clearly illustrates that Susan was a frustrated person due to a series of tragedies occurred in her life since early childhood. Crime Typology Over the course of the trial, Susan was diagnosed with dependent personality disorder. Dependent personality disorder is a personality disorder where victims express a persistent psychological dependence on other people. It is a chronic condition where victims depend upon others to meet their physical and emotional needs. From the case, it appears that Susan had maintained relationship with several persons and it is one of the major characteristics of this personality disorder. In addition, individuals with this disorder will have weaker self-image. Susan was dependent on others throughout her life and she gave little importance to her personal strengths and abilities. This increased dependency was the major reason why she never took a strict stand against her step-father who had abused her sexually. As many experts claim, this personality disorder might have played a noticeable role in Susan’s criminal behavior. According to the US law, the defendant becomes incompetent to stand trial if he is proved to be insane at the time of the crime (Justia US Law). Although there is no constitutional requirement that demands the state to assume the burden of proving the defendant’s insanity, the state has the obligation to conduct a hearing on the issue if the defendant argues that he was insane at the time of the crime; however, this insanity provision is not applicable to all forms of mental disorders (Justia US Law). The Susan Smith case study is about a homicide offender, who killed her two children to reconcile her affair with a rich businessman. Susan is a single murderer. The court ruled that Susan was competent to stand trial in spite of the defense lawyers’ argument that she had been suffering from a personality disorder that might have contributed to her criminal behavior. However, the decision by which she was found to be not guilty by the reason of insanity appears to be unethical. Obviously, Susan had developed dependent personality disorder at the time of murdering her children and this disorder had a great influence on her criminality. The decision to terminate children was not taken by Susan’s normal mind, but her increased dependency on Findlay and the intense desire for the continual of the relationship with him persuaded her to do it. She had actually planned to die with the children and changed this plan at the last moment and let the car roll into the river with kids inside. It clearly indicates the disrupted mental state of Susan at the time of the homicide. Hence, Susan was possibly insane while murdering her sons and hence she was incompetent to stand trial. Therefore, Susan should have been treated properly instead of getting sentenced to life imprisonment. References Bailey, F. Y & Chermak, S. Famous American Crimes and Trials. Volume 5: 1981–2000. Retrieved from http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=C8338&chapterID=C8338-1097&path=books/greenwood Justia US Law. The Problem of the Incompetent or Insane Defendant or Convict. Retrieved from http://law.justia.com/constitution/us/amendment-14/60-incompetent-or-insane-defendant.html Lorig, K. (2001). Patient Education: A Practical Approach. US: SAGE. Read More