Psychopathic Behavior of Ted Bundy - Case Study Example

Psychopathic Behavior: Ted Bundy Psychopathic Behavior: Ted Bundy Offenders with antisocial traits are likely to attempt suicide since they have high negative emotional and low constraint. Bartol & Bartol (2012) says that Anti Social Personality Disorder (ASPD) is the impulsivity features of psychopathic and weak prediction of Suicide-Related Behavior. High negative emotionality and low constraint mediate the relation between ASPD and SRB. Adolescent is a developmental period that associates with increased risk of anti social behavior (Douglas et al. 2008). The construct of psychopath proves useful to identify a subset of antisocial individual that applies to youth due to instability. The other concern that relate to predictive utility is the constructs that outweigh negative consequences in the current assessment tools. Most of the offenders with psychopathic personality illustrate dysfunctional behavior in comparison to other offenders. Douglas et al. (2008) believes that psychopathic traits manifest themselves when an individual is young. Some of the personality dimensions include interpersonal, affective, and behavioral as core. The callous-unemotional or affective dimension distinguishes a subgroup of youth with prominent features such as delinquency, aggression, and antisocial behavior. Some of the researchers identify psychopathic traits in younger adults as well as children. The potential limitation of ASPD is that it presents items in a straightforward manner where a child does not care on the feelings of others (Seals et al. 2012). It is less problematic for a parent or teacher report measures since it can render the report vulnerable to the association between psychopathic traits and deceptive self-perception. Some of the previous research indicates that subclinical levels of psychopathic traits associate with antisocial level. Studying psychopathic solely with reference to samples will enable one to have insight on the risk of maladaptive behavior. Research with the community youth samples provide clues to process that underlie a development of psychopathic traits and ways of preventing that development. YPI generally outperformed the ASPD to measure internal consistency. Early Life Theodore Bundy was a person with Anti Social Personality Disorder (ASPD). The individual was born in 1946 in Vermont, Philadelphia (Lamar & Holmes, 1989). At an early age, his teacher observed feelings of uneasiness and behavioral problems. Bundy was above average student that kept to himself and avoided to socialize with others in school and home. His father was unknown to Bundy throughout his life, he was led to believe that his grandparents were his parents and his mother was his old sister. The confusion had the intent of protecting his mother single parent status Ted and his mother relocated to Tacoma, Washington when Ted was 4 years old. In 1951, her mother married Johnnie Culpepper Bundy a military cook (Preston, 1980). He assumed his stepfather’s last name that he kept for the rest of his life. Johnnie effort to establish a bond between him and Bundy was unsuccessful since he became uncomfortable in the presence of his stepfather. His effort to remain in solitude led to his inability to interact with others in the society. His effort to socialize was fruitless in the baseball and basketball teams. He attempted skiing and he could make counterfeit tickets and never caught. Bundy could describe his childhood as lonely experience while in junior high since his parents overlooked him over the rest of the siblings (Lamar & Holmes, 1989). In ardently, Bundy lacked social skills and that led him to have only one girl friend. Different researchers cite that Bundy was a shy person as a youth as a vague uneasiness inhabited his mind. His strong points in school include good manners, exceptionally dressed, and maintain an above average grade. In junior high, he forged an interest in politics in addition to skiing. After high school, Bundy attended University at Puget Sound and Washington. Later on, he found menial jobs and most of his employers complained due to his inconsistency and unreliability University life During his college life, he met a highly classy woman from affluent family that lived in California. Their love relationship did not last long since they had many differences. Bundy was new in the foray sophistication world and as she graduated in University of Washington they went separate ways. Bundy did not recover from the break-up since it left him depressed. He had obsession to the young woman that led him to different events that shocked the world. After graduating from university, his life seemed to change since he was a confident person with high aspirations of the future. He played an active role in politics as he sent out various applications to different law schools (Preston, 1989). He mingled with the political elite during his work in the campaign to re-elect the Washington governor. Bundy was happy that his life was taking shape as he vision, the Seattle police enforcement congratulated him for his courageous work of saving a three-year old. During one of the business trip to California, he met his former girlfriend. The woman was amazed with Bundy transformation and his maturity. They rejuvenated their relationship as Bundy lavished affection on her. Suddenly he changed to cold and despondency and ended all contact with her. His plan of revenge had worked since it was his opportunity to reject her as she had previously done. Criminal life Forensic evidence state that his trigger to psychopathic behavior was mainly due to disagreement with his college girlfriend that saw him result in depression. The documented first murder committed by Bundy took place in Seattle in the early 70s (Lamar & Holmes, 1989). Bundy smashed the head of his college girlfriend with a rod as well as other female college students. The criminal could use his good looks and charm to sway young women to assist him. The women that agreed could disappear and never seen again. According to (), Bundy was pleasantly handsome, intelligent, manipulator, and a silver-tongued charmer that ensnared women to their deaths. He succeeded in confounding police enforcement and obstructed the court system for a long time. Bundy started his crime spree by shoplifting, burglary, sexually assaulting women, and murder. As most psychopaths all their victims belong to the same ethnic group to avoid suspicion, all Bundy’s victims were white women. A period of killing spree ensued when many women inexplicably disappeared. Most of the girls that disappeared had the same physical traits that include white, slender, and parted hair. The police enforcement that interviewed college students had information of a stranger that had a cast on the arm or leg. The stranger struggled with books and asked young women for assistance. The strange person had a Volkswagen that apparently had difficulty in starting. For instance, Denise Nashlund disappeared as a stranger that wore a cast approached her and she assisted him. That act of kindness cost her life. Utah’s Police Chief Smith daughter felled prey of Bundy as she was found nine days after her disappearance, strangled, raped, and sodomized. Laura Aime disappeared and at the time they found her, it appeared she had been hit on the head using a crowbar, sodomized, and raped. Preston (1980) argues that Bundy was a serial killer and a sexual path during his life. The forensic evidence helped to tie him to the murders committed. He suffered from psychopathic personality to hurt victims sexually. Additionally, he suffered from inferiority complex since he was poor unlike most of the classmates. All the cases of murder had similar characteristics and that caught the attention of police enforcement in Utah and Washington (Lamar & Holmes, 1989). The state investigators held that it was one person that committed the series of killings. Elizabeth Kendall, a friend to Bundy reported to the Seattle Police Department information concerning the suspect. The only problem was that the suspect in all the cases had clutches or a cast on the arm while his pictures did not show any injuring. Investigators working on the case turned their attention on other likely suspects. Bundy managed to remain elusive and operated from different states such as Colorado, Utah, and Washington. He though the police would never catch up with him. His behavior later on became bold and dangerous as he approached women. The people that escaped his advances provided the police with crucial information in the case. Carol DaRonch provided the police investigators with crucial information pertaining Bundy. Bundy approached her and claimed he was an Officer by the name Roseland. Carol managed to run away from the stranger that was ready to kill her (Lamar & Holmes, 1989). By the time police came to her rescue, Bundy was long gone while they were able to have a latest description of the person. Later, on Debby Kent, a woman that had gone to watch an evening performance disappeared. The police found handcuffs that Carol had worn earlier. A man called the investigators and told them concerning one tarn Volkswagen he saw speed away on the night of Kent’s disappearance. The psychological evaluation illustrate that he had a strong dependency on women while he feared humiliation while relating with women. Most psychopaths are happy amidst danger and violence. The psychopath applied organized serial killing (Lamar & Holmes, 1989). As a law student, he knew never to leave weapons at the crime scene and could hide the victim bodies. He used his car to transport his victims to different locations. The last minute confessions of the murderer prove that the former law student had killed more than 100 women during his crime spree. Most of the women lived in Colorado, Utah, Florida, and Washington making him one of the nation’s monstrous prolific serial killers. Earlier on, he succeeded in using legal schemes to postpone the stays of execution. References Bartol, C., & Bartol, A. (2012). Introduction to forensic psychology: Research and application (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. Douglas, K., Lilienfeld, S., Skeem, J., Poythress, N., Edens, J., & Patrick, C. (2008). Relation of Antisocial and Psychopathic Traits to Suicide-related Behavior Among Offenders. Law & Human Behavior (Springer Science & Business Media B.V.), 32(6), 511-525. Lamar, J. V., & Holmes, C. (1989). I Deserve Punishment Killer Ted Bundy bargains and postures to the end. Time, 133(6), 34. Preston, G. A. (1980). Ted Bundy (Book Review). Library Journal, 105(8), 995. Seals, R. W., Sharp, C., Ha, C., & Michonski, J. D. (2012). The Relationship Between the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory and Psychopathology in a U.S. Community Sample of Male Youth. Journal Of Personality Assessment, 94(3), 232-243. Read More