CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

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CRI1104 THE PSYCHOLOGY

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BAGGA
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AAYUSHI
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NATALIE GATELY

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TED BUNDY- CASE STUDY

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CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

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CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

Title: Psychological Analysis on Ted Bundy

Aayushi Bagga
Edith Cowan University

CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

4
ABSTRACT

The purpose of this case study is to consider Ted Bundys criminal record
through investigating significant life events in correspondence with psychological
theories and research. Beginning with an opening into the basis of Bundys criminal
life, the case study then discusses both the legal and behavioural definitions of his
offences. Bundys criminal behaviour may be explained by the inferred diagnosis of
antisocial personality disorder. The causes behind Bundys criminal behaviour are
thus examined using psychological literature.
This case study will focus on the dismissive attachment theory, operant learning and
reinforcement, displaced aggression theory and the effects of violent media in
explaining Bundys criminal career. Such research is considered in unification with
Bundys significant life events, comprising his fathers rejection prior to his birth,
misperception of family figures, separation from his parents and exposure to violent
media as a teenager, to conclude the reasoning behind his criminal behaviour.

CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

Table of Contents
1. Introduction.6
2. Legal definition of offences7
3. Clinical definition of offences... .7
4. History of offender and psychological explanation..9
5. Conclusion...14
6. References.. 15

CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

Introduction
Theodore Robert Cowell, commonly known as Ted Bundy was born on
November 24 1946 in Burlington Vermont, to Louise Cowell. He was an American
th

serial murderer who brutally killed and sexually attacked thirty female victims. Bundy
was notorious for the nature of his crimes, as he faked injuries and handicaps as a
means to gain the victims trust before murdering them. He persistently returned to a
number of his victims to engage in sexual activities with their deceased bodies until
they had deteriorated. Whilst travelling the country searching for his victims, Bundy
escaped lawful authority on two events before served with capital punishment in
January 1989.
Bundy was known to be canny and achieved well in his law and psychology
courses; however since an early age experienced severe emotional issues and a lacked
the ability to socially engage in others. Despite the faade of being socially
interactive, Bundy favoured his own company and found it difficult to associate with
others, especially after his first breakup. The dismissal by his former girlfriend is
suggested to have triggered Bundys severe frustration and anger, indicating that his
first murder was a result of this rejection and the rage associated with that trigger.
This case study will examine some significant events in Bundys life using the
Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), psychological theories
and research in an attempt to explain why he committed these crimes. The
psychological principles covered include personality disorders, attachment theory, and
operant learning and positive reinforcement theory.

CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

Legal Definitions of Offences

Bundy was found guilty of sexual penetration, kidnapping and murder. Section
325 of the Criminal Code Act Compilation Act 1913 (WA) (Criminal Code) defines
sexual penetration (rape) as a person who sexually penetrates another person without
the consent of that person. Under s. 279 of the Criminal Code murder is defined as the
unlawful killing of another person where there is either the intent to kill, or cause
grievous bodily harm, with the knowledge that death or grievous bodily harm would
occur. According to s. 333 kidnapping is outlined as a person who deprives another
person of personal liberty by taking or enticing the other person away, or by confining
and detaining the other person in any place.
Clinical Definitions of Offences
Using the DSM-V (2013) and literature available explaining Bundys
behaviour and his criminal history, he may have suffered from antisocial personality
disorder. Antisocial personality disorder is defined within the DSM-V (2013) as a
pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others, beginning in childhood
and continuing into adulthood. The following key elements of the disorder are all
strong indications that Bundy suffered from APD as adult, however the diagnosis only
requires three or more of the succeeding components:

The involvement in deceit and manipulation of others, evident in the

repetition of lying, use of aliases and conning others from his own
personal profit and pleasure. For example, Bundy lured his victims him
by first gaining there trust through faking injuries before sexually
assaulting them.

CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

A consistent failure to conform to social norms, as indicated in

Bundys lack of ability to engage in others in an appropriate manner
recurrently engaging in serious antisocial behaviour and delinquency.

The disrespect for lawful behaviours as apparent by recurrently

performing the illegal acts of murder and kidnapping.

Actions should show impulsivity or the failure to plan ahead.

Evidently, Bundy tried to enact the polices identity and lure a woman
into his car, but she managed to escape from his hold and later
identified him at the police station as the man who tried to molest her.

Behaviour is aggressive, irritable and displays a reckless disregard for

the safety or others. Bundys arrest and conviction for sexually
assaulting and murdering more than 30 women depicts his aggressive
behaviour and lack disregard for others.

Consistent irresponsibility is apparent by Bundys repeated failure to

sustain consistent employment or honour financial commitments.

Maintaining a lack of remorse is a significant element within Bundys

behaviour, indicated by his actions of pursuing his female victims
through the means of gaining access to them by portraying himself as
someone trustworthy. Additionally, the action of returning to his
victims bodies with the intent to sexually abuse them depicts not only
his lack of remorse for his victims, but his need for sexual gratification
from them.

B.

The individual is at least 18 years of age.

C.

There is evidence of conduct disorder before age 15. According to Rule

(2009), Bundy was caught for auto theft and burglary two times as juvenile.

CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

D. The occurrence of antisocial behaviour is not exclusively during the course

of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

History of Offender and Psychological Explanations

From birth, Bundy was physically and emotionally abandoned by his father as
he left both Bundy and his mother, Louise, before he was conceived. Despite his birth
certificate records stating that Lloyd Marshall was the father (Rule, 2000), Bundys
family suspected that Louises own violent father could be Bundys biological father.
(Michaud et al, 1999). Since a child, Louise passed herself off as Bundys sister, with
his grandparents acting as his parents in order to save the family from shame. Despite
the fact that his mother was there with him amid his youth, she was unable to provide
Bundy with the love and support he needed from a mother as a child. Research says
that a child who is abandoned by his mother is at high risk of developing antisocial
and violent habits (Whitman, 2004). Children who dont succeed to develop a safe
and allied association with their parental figures are likely to meet a scope of issues
including personal, behavioral and social issues, all noteworthy elements constructing
the development of antisocial personality disorder (Levy et al, 2004).
There is emerging proof that hereditary qualities may play a part in the
development of psychopathy which is considered within research major link to antisocial personality disorder (Bartol et al, 2011). It has been said that Bundys
grandfather was violent towards animals (Shapiro, 2005). This early misconduct and
behaviour portraying complete disrespect and disregard for others safety may have
affected Bundys learning, as it was modelled that treating animals with violence was
acceptable. As a young person Bundy spent a significant amount of time viewing
obscene magazines and books with dead or damaged bodies (Nelson, 1994). It can be

CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

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inferred that this visual triggered Bundys behaviour of lurking around homes in
search of females undressing themselves, also fuelled by the uptake of profuse
consumption of liquor (Michaud et al, 1999). Bundy has stated that once you become
addicted to it, and I look at this as a kind of addiction, you look for more potent, more
explicit, more graphic kinds of material (Shapiro, 2005).
At the age of four, Bundy was separated from his grandparents and Louise
decided to move to Washington to start a new life. In his early teens Bundy came to
know about his illegitimacy and later found out that his sister was his mother.
Research proposes that this family dysfunction and neglect caused Bundy to search
comfort within him, starting with masturbation and sexual fantasies which feels
pleasurable but enables him with a sense of control (Whitman, 2004). Additionally,
Bundys separation from his grandparents and discovering the truth about his familial
roles, contribute to the formation of his inability to developed interpersonal relations.
As a result of their environment, serial killers are often damaged psychologically
(Carbajal, 2010), in Bundys case fearing loss or separation generates strong feelings
of anxiety and rage in the offender, resulting in his violent actions (Bartol et al.,
2011).
Bundys first relationship was with Stephanie and due to his strong feelings
of love for her was he invested a significant amount of effort trying to impress her.
However Bundys girlfriend felt he was inadequate and had no hope for the future,
thus she broke up with him. This rejection is believed to have triggered an
accumulation of fear, anger, resentment and frustration which he emitted by engaging
in violent acts of rape and murder. Literature supports this conjecture stating that
serial murderers begin to kill as a result of increasing feelings of rejection, frustration,
anger and powerlessness (Liebman, 1989; Whitman and Akutagawa, 2004).

CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

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Accordingly, the women Bundy violently engaged him physically resembled his
former girlfriend Stephanie.
In his interview with James Dobson Bundy said that From time to time,
we would come across books of a harder nature - more graphic. This also included
detective magazines, etc., and I want to emphasize this. The most damaging kind of
pornography - and Im talking from hard, real, personal experience - is that that
involves violence and sexual violence. Like an addiction, you keep craving something
which is harder and gives you a greater sense of excitement, until you reach the point
where the pornography only goes so far - that jumping off point where you begin to
think maybe actually doing it will give you that which is just beyond reading about it
and looking at it (Bundy & Dobson, 2004). Most of the general public believes that
rapists are psychopathic, sexually frustrated individuals, who are unable to control
their sexual urges (Allison, Adams, Bunce, Gilkerson, & Nelson, 1992). Bundy would
go back to the victims dead bodies, and perform sexual activities with them until it
was physically impossible. Also, Bundy forced his girlfriend Meg, to act like a dead
body while he performed sexually. (Rule,1998). Necrophilia can be explained as
sexual arousal triggered by a dead body (Hucker, 2005). Muderers frequently involve
in necrophilia, as it allows them to feel absolute power over the body of victim
(Carbajal, 2010). Other research also shows that exposure to explicit violent content
increases the level of sexual aggression toward women (Shope, 2004).
Bowlby (1969) was the founder of Attachment theory which captivated
mind of researchers (Ainsworth, 1979; Birnbaum, 2007; Bowlby, 1969; Burton &
Lyn, 2004). According to the attachment , babies develop connections to a parental
figure to secure their endurance (Birnbaum, 2007). Various connection styles will be
formed based upon the excellence of the relationship between the new born and the

CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

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parent (Birnbaum, 2007). Attachment theorists propose that an interruption in the

production of connections between the child and mother within the earliest stages will
prompt issues in adulthood concerning relationships, connections and self-control
(Feerick, Haugaard and Hien, 2002). It is the view of this paper that Bundy built up an
avoidant-dismissive attachment style.
Bundy didnt know who was his father neither was he able to develop a good
relation with his step-father. (Rule, 1980), this characteristic is in somebody with a
dismissive attachment approach (Arrigo and Griffin, 2004). When Bundy was four, he
was separated from his grandparents, who he though were his parents (Tenet, 1980).
This separation with his grandfather could have been an "interruption" in the growth
of an relationship with someone essential to Bundy, due to which he developed
dismissive attachment style. On the other hand, as Bundy was conceived inside an
organization for unwed moms, this too could have been the reason for him to develop
dismissive attachment style. In such an organization it may not have been a
nourishing situation in which Bundy could receive love from his mother. Thus
dismissive attachment style and combined with exposure to violent pornography
could have been the factors in making Bundy sexually aggressive.
Operant learning and reinforcement theory can also be used to explain
Bundys criminal behaviour.. For every crime Bundy committed, he gained something
he anticipated as a consequence of his behaviour; this may deduce that positive
reinforcement was occurring (Bartol & Bartol, 2011). Reinforcement brings learning
of criminal behaviour and also strengthens it (Bartol & Bartol, 2011). As an example,
Bundys crimes appeared to be focused by a yearning for social and psychological
reinforcements such as self-esteem, through rewards of contentment (Bartol & Bartol,

CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

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2011). The expectancy theory argues that a persons performance level is based on
their belief that behaving in a meticulous way will escort to a given result (Bartol &
Bartol, 2011). For instance, people constantly seek for power, control, and security
when they think of engaging in illegal conduct (Bartol & Bartol, 2011). The operant
learning and positive reinforcement theory supports Bundys criminal behaviour
through the contentment he got from sexual pleasure by assaulting his victims,
whereas the expectancy theory relates his need for control over women.
Aggression is displaced when the object is naive of any misconduct but is merely in
the wrong situateion at the wrong time (Bushman, 2005). In Bundys life this theory
could be associated as he faced rejection from Stephanie, someone he loved and she
was the only person he had been able to form a relation after issues with his family. It
is believed that it was after Stephanie broke up with him, Bundy started committing
crime.

CASE STUDY-TED BUNDY

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Conclusion
Bundys behaviour in conjunction with the psychological literature discussed
indicates that his criminal actions were caused by an accumulation of anger,
resentment and lack of self-control. It can be concluded that the dismissal of a father
figure, violence modelled by his grandfather, the absence of a motherly figure and
rejection from his former girlfriend were the core of Bundys aggression. There are
various psychopathic characteristics evident within Bundy inferred from the available
literature which could have been exacerbated by his youth obsession on violent and
sexual pictures. Additionally, the dismissive attachment theory supports the inferred
diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, as he was never able to secure any
relations in his life. The displaced aggression theory supports Bundys behaviour as
his victims resembles his ex-girlfriend but had nothing to do with Bundy. The
psychological theories and related literature support the view that certain personality
traits, influenced by environmental factors, can increase the likelihood of a person
developing criminal tendencies. Thus Bundys criminal record can to some extent be
explain by a clinical diagnosis and the environment of which he developed in,
specifically involving the lack of emotional connections and immense rejections.

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References
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American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual
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Allison, J.A., Adams, D.L., Bunce, L.W., Gilkerson, T., & Nelson, K.L.
(1992). The rapist: Aggressive, dangerous, power-hungry, and manipulative. Paper
presented at the convention of the Association for Psychological and Educational
Research in Kansas, Emporia, Kansas.
Arrigo, B. A. & Griffin, A. (2004). Serial murder and the case of Aileen
Wuornos: Attachment theory, psychopathy and predatory aggression. Behavioral
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Bartol, C., & Bartol, A. (2011). Criminal Behaviour, A Psychological
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sexual fantasies. Personal Relationships, 14, 321-342.
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Bundy, T. & Dobson, J. (2004, January 27). The last interview with Ted
Bundy.

[Radio

node_id=1515802

interview].

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from

http://everything2.com/index.pl?

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Burton, D. L. & Lyn, T. S. (2004). Adult attachment and sexual offender

status. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 2, 150-159.
Carbajal, K. (2010). Dr Hannibal The Cannibal Lecter and Serial Killers:
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Criminal Code Act Compilation Act 1913 (WA)

Hucker,

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(2005).

Necrophilia.

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site:http://www.forensicpsychiatry.ca/paraphilia/necro.htm
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Michaud, S., & Aynesworth, H. (1999). The Only Living Witness: The True
Story of Serial Sex Killer Ted Bundy. Irving, Texas: Authorlink Press.
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lawyer. New York: William Morrow.
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Shope, J. H. (2004). When words are not enough: The search for the effect of
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