750 Word Paper

1

Final Essay CCJ4666
Indian River State College
Dr. Clay

Victims of crime experience life altering situations that can significantly affect their outlook on life, their personal well-being and their treatment to others. It is heartwarming to find stories of victims who suffered a horrific experience and turned it into a motive to help others. Kidnapping victim, Elizabeth Smart, represents the story of a strong, young woman who has created light out of a dark time in her life.
On June 4, 2002 Elizabeth Smart was only fourteen years old when she had been abducted out of her Utah home in the middle of the night (Biography.com Editors, 2014). Brian David Mitchell snuck into the household and held a knife at Smart’s throat and threatened that her whole family would be killed if she didn’t remain silent and leave with him. Her younger sister witnessed the whole scene as she laid silent in bed pretending to be asleep. Mitchell was not the lone captor; his legally wedded wife, Wanda Barzee, waited hours away at a camp for them to return. The couple raped Smart every day during her captivity. Mitchell performed a wedding ceremony to declare marriage between himself and Smart as he was convinced, he was a prophet named Immanuel. The captivity did not only consist of isolation and sexual acts but travels back and forth between California and Utah and the forced consumption of alcohol and drugs at high doses combined with the lack of food (Biography.com Editors, 2014). The chance of Smart escaping was minimal as her captors had her tied between trees with a steel cable wrapped around her ankle (McLaughlin, 2015).
Smart was an intelligent, young teenager brought into a horrific situation. While there should be no fingers pointed at her for her kidnapping, victimization theories raise ideas. Hans Von Hentig’s victimization theory relates to Smart’s disappearance. In this theory, biological risk factors are considered in victims that increase their vulnerabilities. Hentig recognized females having the lack of physical strength (Sanchez, n.d.). This became a factor in the ability for Smart to escape her captors. Also, Hentig recognized young victims lacking mental and emotional maturity (Sanchez, n.d.). This may have factored into events during Smart’s disappearance. There were several times Mitchell brought Smart into public settings, covered from head to toe to hide her identity (McLaughlin, 2015). It raises the question, could she have been more alert of her surroundings and finding subtle ways to make her presence known to the public?
Elizabeth Smart was a religious member of a Mormon Church, in which she remains faithful to the religion today. The sexual acts that Mitchell forced Smart to be involved in with himself and his wife were strictly against the Mormon religion. Premarital sex and watching the demonstration of sexual acts was forbidden in the church, but Mitchell ensured Smart experienced these behaviors daily (McLaughlin, 2015). These aspects of Smart’s life may be explained in the Routine Activities Approach. One of the aspects included in this theory generally aims at how individuals’ routines may bring about their victimization of a crime (Wikstrom, 2009). Mitchell attended the same church Smart belonged to; he knew how she was raised and her ideals. These aspects became a target for Mitchell as going against her church beliefs would weaken her. Psychological forces with theories of sexual violence tie into the sickening acts that Mitchell performed on Smart (IRSC, 2015). He greatly believed that it was his duty to marry Smart and treat her in such a violent manner.
Media in the early 2000s was solely limited to news platforms and distribution of newspapers and magazines. Posters urging people to contact law enforcement if they knew of Smart’s whereabouts were posted all over the local cities, on store corkboards, lampposts and trees. Thousands of volunteers helped in the search for Smart after her disappearance as the media had the nation falling in love with the precious missing teenager. Reporters were supportive in the beginning, but as the days and weeks passed on, they pushed the doubt of Smart’s live discovery. Her family then became the target of reporters claiming they were responsible for her disappearance (McLaughlin, 2015).
Smart’s younger sister remembered the man she saw in the bedroom that horrific night resembled the handyman, Immanuel, who had worked on their house before the kidnapping. After police investigation to confirm the identity of Mitchell, his picture was broadcasted on America’s Most Wanted in February 2003. Nearly a month after the show’s airing, Mitchell was spotted with a covered up Smart. The evening of March 12, 2003, Smart was reunited with her family and law enforcement arrested Mitchell and Barzee. December of 2010, Mitchell was convicted to a life sentence without the possibility of parole on the counts of kidnapping and transportation of a child across state lines for sexual desires. Due to involvement in the crimes, Barzee was sentenced to 15 years in prison (Biography.com Editors, 2014).
Elizabeth Smart began her life over again with a mind of positivity. Media has had a significant role in Smart’s adult life as she uses media platforms to advocate for victims. She is now a well-known activist on behalf of kidnapping survivors and victims of child abuse and sexual abuse through the launching of the Elizabeth Smart Foundation. In 2011, Smart became an ABC News special correspondent reporting missing people and child abductions. Appearances on shows hosted by Oprah Winfrey and Katie Couric have also increased her media presence. Authoring her own book, My Story, and helping in the writing of, You Are Not Alone: The Journey From Abduction to Empowerment, Smart has openly discussed her kidnapping and expresses her life of happiness now (Biography.com Editors, 2014). February 2020 brought back disturbing flashbacks to Smart’s earlier experiences as she had been inappropriately touched in her sleep while on a flight. Her most recent project, Smart Defense, is a program created to teach women and girls ways to defend themselves. Tactics taught will provide women of all ages the confidence and ability to fight back in response during cases of assault and sexual violence (CNN Wire, 2020).
There may never be clear cut answers to say why Mitchell and Barzee did what they did. There is no turning back time to prevent this terrible case from occurring. However, there is a strong woman who was able to overcome many, many obstacles and help others along the way. Victims don’t ask to be victimized; while some theories may say there are factors or lifestyles that victims take part in to “attract” offenders, this is not always the case. Elizabeth Smart was swept up and drained of her ability to be a free spirited, young teenager, but that did not stop her from creating a successful life. Afterwards, the true beauties of freedom, life, love and courage blossomed.

References
Biography.com Editors. (2014, April 2). Elizabeth Smart Biography. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved from: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/elizabeth-smart
CNN Wire. (2020, February 7). Elizabeth Smart starts self-defense program after she says she was assaulted on a flight. FOX 4 NEWS. Retrieved from: https://fox4kc.com/news/elizabeth-smart-starts-self-defense-program-after-she-says-she-was-assaulted-on-a-flight/

IRSC. (2015, April 2). CCJ4666 Victimology – Module 3 – Murder, Sex Offenses, and Intimate Partner Violence. IRSC. Retrieved from: https://www.softchalkcloud.com/lesson/serve/CJGbf1EoItH3QW/html

McLaughlin, C.M. (2015). Fear or Love: Examining Stockholm Syndrome in Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping Case. Salem State University. Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.salemstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=honors_theses

Sanchez, S. (n.d.). SOU-CCJ230 Introduction to the America Criminal Justice System: 1.14. Victims and Victim Typologies. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Retrieved from: https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/ccj230/chapter/1-14-victims-in-the-cj-system/

Wikstrom, P.H. (2009, December 14). Routine Activity Theories. Criminology. Retrieved from: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0010.xml#firstMatch