• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • The Newspaper
  • Our Team
  • PDF Books
  • Archive
  • Gallery
  • Contact Us

Scena Criminis

L'Informazione al servizio della Legalità

  • EnglishEnglish
    • ItalianoItaliano
    • EnglishEnglish
    • EspañolEspañol
  • News & History
    • History of Crime
    • Criminal Words
    • Gender Violence
    • News
    • Organized Crime
  • Quotes, Interviews, Videos
    • Interviews
    • Quotes
    • Videos
  • Crime & Art
    • Recommended Books
    • Criminal Portraits
    • The Eye that Kills: Cinema and Crime
    • Violent Art
  • Criminal Biographies
    • Caserta: Crimes from the Past
    • Criminal Biographies
    • Most Wanted
    • Mysteries and Unsolved Crimes
    • Serial Killer
    • Snapshots from a Crime
  • Forensic Sciences
    • Criminalistics
      • Ballistics: Rifles and Guns
    • Criminology
      • Psychology
      • Sociology
    • Law
    • Nonverbal Communication
You are here: Home / Forensic Sciences / Stockholm Syndrome

Stockholm Syndrome

29 June 2015 da admin Leave a Comment

0Shares

Stockholm syndrome, psychological response wherein a captive begins to identify closely with his or her captors, as well as with their agenda and demands.

The name of the syndrome is derived from a botched bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. In August 1973 four employees of Sveriges Kreditbank were held hostage in the bank’s vault for six days. During the standoff, a seemingly incongruous bond developed between captive and captor. One hostage, during a telephone call with Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, stated that she fully trusted her captors but feared that she would die in a police assault on the building.

The most infamous example of Stockholm syndrome may be that involving kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst. In 1974, some 10 weeks after being taken hostage by the Symbionese Liberation Army, Hearst helped her kidnappers rob a California bank. But it was during the hostage crisis in Iran (1979–81) that the Stockholm syndrome worked its way into the public imagination. The syndrome was also cited after the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847. Although passengers underwent a hostage ordeal that stretched more than two weeks, upon their release some were openly sympathetic to the demands of their kidnappers. Terry Anderson (1985–91), Terry Waite (1987–91), and Thomas Sutherland (1985–91), all of whom had been kidnaped by Islamist militants in Lebanon, claimed that they had been treated well by their captors, despite the fact that they had often been held in solitary confinement and chained up in small, unclean cells. Similar responses were exhibited by the hostages held at the Japanese embassy in Peru in 1996–97.

Psychologists who have studied the syndrome believe that the bond is initially created when a captor threatens a captive’s life, deliberates, and then chooses not to kill the captive. The captive’s relief at the removal of the death threat is transposed into feelings of gratitude toward the captor for giving him or her life. As the Stockholm bank robbery incident proves, it takes only a few days for this bond to cement, proving that, early on, the victim’s desire to survive trumps the urge to hate the person who created the situation.

The survival instinct is at the heart of the Stockholm syndrome. Victims live in enforced dependence and interpret rare or small acts of kindness in the midst of horrible conditions as good treatment. They often become hypervigilant to the needs and demands of their captors, making psychological links between the captors’ happiness and their own. Indeed, the syndrome is marked not only by a positive bond between captive and captor but also by a negative attitude on behalf of the captive toward authorities who threaten the captor-captive relationship. The negative attitude is especially powerful when the hostage is of no use to the captors except as leverage against a third party, as has often been the case with political hostages.

By the 21st century, psychologists had expanded their understanding of the Stockholm syndrome from hostages to other groups, including victims of domestic violence, cult members, prisoners of war, procured prostitutes, and abused children.

Source: britannica.com

Author: Laura Lambert

Related posts:

Woody Allen: Guilty or Not?
Francis Galton and Fingerprints
FBI - Biometric Center of Excellence
Hedonist Lust Killers must feed their insatiable hunger
0Shares

Filed Under: Criminology, Forensic Sciences, Psychology

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Make a donation to support our activities

Stay updated in real time

Subscribe to the Newsletter
Loading

Follow us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Search

Safe and prudent use of Internet

Categorie Articoli

Last Articles

Info

  • Business Contacts
  • Disclaimer

Tags

America american most wanted art artist Chicago crime crimen crime scene criminal Criminalistics crimine criminology CSI disorder Dna fbi forensics forensic science homicide killer law most wanted Murder Nonverbal Communication oil on canvas painting police prison psicólogia psychology psychology today research reward scena criminis science serial killer sex sex offender terrorism terrorist united states US USA violence violent art

Footer

Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy

Scene Criminis aims to bring together – around a “round table” – experts, students and simple onlookers, who want to confront, update and find new stimuli.

The largest Italian Community on Forensic Sciences that collects news, studies, curiosities and contributions on Criminology, Criminalistics, Crime Report and Law.

Scena Criminis is also a Non-profit Association, active throughout the province of Caserta (Italy), which has 3 fundamental purposes: Defense of Legality, Fight against all forms of Violence, Education to Gender Differences.

Follow us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Instagram

scenacriminis

😄😁😆 😄😁😆
A volte, resistere è impossibile...

🕵‍♀️www.scenacriminis.com🕵‍♂️
Occhio alla guardia! 😆🤣😜 🕵‍♂️ww Occhio alla guardia! 😆🤣😜

🕵‍♂️www.scenacriminis.com🕵‍♀️
#truestory 😑

Seguimi 👉 scenacriminis.com 😎
Altro che #CIA 🤣 Seguimi 👉 scenacriminis.co Altro che #CIA 🤣

Seguimi 👉 scenacriminis.com 😎
😍 😍
Secondo voi, è davvero così? 👺 Secondo voi, è davvero così? 👺
Mi sembra giusto... 🤣

👉 scenacriminis.com 👈

#Napoli
😱😱😱 👉 scenacriminis.com 👈 😱😱😱

👉 scenacriminis.com 👈
Carica altro… Segui su Instagram

Copyright Scena Criminis Testata giornalistica registrata presso il Tribunale di Santa Maria Capua Vetere (CE) n. 849 del 26/04/2016 © 2022 ·

Direttore Responsabile: Gianfrancesco Coppo

Created by BDM | Log in