Taking Stockholm

Jaycee Dugard reappeared after 18 years of captivity.

Jaycee Dugard has apparently defied the face-on-the-milk-carton narrative: On Wednesday, she walked into a police station and announced that she was the 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., in 1991 while she walked to her school bus stop as her stepfather looked on. A DNA test confirming her identity is pending, but police and Dugard’s family are declaring that she is who she says she is. (Already this differs from a similar case from earlier this summer, when a man announced that he was the little boy from New York kidnapped as a 2-year-old in 1955; DNA tests demonstrated that his claim—based largely on the fact that he never felt like he fit in with his family—was false. ) A man and a woman have been charged in connection with the case.

Unless Dugard was kept under lock and key for the entire 18 years of her captivity, over the next few days, certainly there will be an abundance of pieces about Stockholm syndrome and wondering why she didn't ask for help before. If Dugard’s captors gave her any freedom, locals will start piping up about how she went to the grocery store or to the park, suggesting that she could have fled at any time. That’s the pattern that emerged after kidnapped children Elizabeth Smart and Shawn Hornbeck reappeared after most had written them off for dead; Smart initially denied her identity when confronted by police, and Hornbeck apparently was allowed, after some time had passed, to socialize with kids his captor’s neighborhood and even have a girlfriend. Hornbeck’s story was even turned into an episode of Law & Order, in which the fictionalized version of Hornbeck not only chose to stay with his kidnapped but actually killed a young boy who threatened his place.

I have a difficult time conceptualizing the psychological torture that would lead a child to stay with her tormentor. Fear of the kidnapper hurting her if she’s caught in an escape attempt? Fear of reprisal to her true family? A defensive response to the sexual, physical, and emotional trauma of the most restrictive phase of captivity? Brainwashing that her family no longer wants her, that this is how life must be from now on? Might children’s natural ability to adapt, the same thing that allows them to remain cheerful in the face of more mundane family strife or even learn a new language rapidly, keep them tethered to an abuser? Unfairly, Dugard will be asked a lot of questions about her behavior in coming days; perhaps it will even be difficult for her family, including a 19-year-old sister she barely knew, to keep the suspicions from their minds. But at least they’ve been reunited.

Image is a screenshot from a video about Jaycee Dugard's disappearance.

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By: joolz556 | Fri, 08/28/2009 - 19:17

On the Police Escort thing, i've known control freakism, I would say, he probably truly believed that she would not tell on him, even then, that's how controlled people get! He probably imagined she would clear him, just like he's denying it all now and claiming that he went through some kind of beautiful transformation, I'm sorry, NPD isn't in it!

Ignorance

By: joolz556 | Fri, 08/28/2009 - 19:09

I have to just say this, yes I know you said you didn't know the circumstances before you wrote the article but that just makes it worse for me! There have been many cases like this before, don't you think there is a reason why these people feel so hopeless that they do not feel empowered enough to ask for help! For a start, she was probably told that her mum didnt want her anymore, maybe even sold her/gave her away for being naughty or something, that no-one cared about her, etc. And on top of that probably a lot of death threats, not just to her but also her children. I feel very sad that now, with all that we know, people still judge what they perceive as the "willing/weak victim". What can I say, think before you speak, it's not nice, she was 11 years old, frightened, abused, lost!

Torie, you must be joking!!

By: sue | Fri, 08/28/2009 - 16:34

You wrote: "Unfairly, Dugard will be asked a lot of questions about her behavior in coming days; perhaps it will even be difficult for her family, including a 19-year-old sister she barely knew, to keep the suspicions from their minds. But at least they’ve been reunited."

Seems to me that the only "unfair" comments or questions are coming from you! You seem to have absolutely ZERO insight into psychology and even less empathy.

Blame the victim!?? I would encourage you to explore your own shadow side in this. If you don't know what that means, I invite you to google it!!!

I posted this before the

By: Torie Bosch | Fri, 08/28/2009 - 08:57

I posted this before the details of Jaycee's confinement surfaced, so I apologize if it seems that I dismissed what she went through. My intention was to, if her story were more like other recent kidnapping victims, stave off those who would criticize her for not asking for help (see also the case of Steven Sayner from the '70s).

It is interesting that her captor brought her children to Berkley with him and also had Jaycee escort him to the police station—would be fascinating to know what his thought process was there.

I love it

By: sirenis | Fri, 08/28/2009 - 06:50

Yet another reporter for a "feminist" publication showcasing her ignorance about psychology like it's some sort of precious insight. "I can't imagine how this could happen, neither will a lot of other people who will be pointing this out just like me. This is probably unfair, but what the hell do I know..." Congratulations on your inability to sympathize. Next time hire one of the many unemployed science writers?

a little more info . . .

By: P Starling | Thu, 08/27/2009 - 21:42

Jaycee Dugard apparently was kept isolated in a fenced area and was never seen or heard by neighbors. She also had two children while imprisoned, the first when she was 14 years old. Sounds pretty straightforward to me: how do you leave when you're an abused teenager with two babies and no access to the outside world? To add to the horror, both her children, now 15 and 11 years old, are daughters. No need for threats; doubtless Dugard knew the consequences of leaving little girls in her abusers' hands. Eighteen years of imprisonment and sexual abuse--compared to that, would to God it were something as benign as Stockholm Syndrome.