1. To force to act or think in a certain manner;
2. To dominate, restrain, or control by force; and
3. To bring about by force.
Those three definitions are a majority of the attributes that explain those that are "coercive" and "manipulative." In addition, Dr. Margaret Singer of UC Berkeley believes that there are seven main tactics that one would use to get the upper psychological hand, including tactics four and five- making the person “re-evaluate the most central aspects of his or her experience of self” and “creat[ing] a sense of powerlessness.” It may just be that I’m a crime buff, but when I hear these two tactics in particular, I think of movies such as Saw and novels such as And Then There Were None, by none other than Agatha Christie. I am aware that these are fiction, but they are also prime examples of criminals using psychology against everyday people: both involve a subject attempting to turn unaware individuals against each other in a high-stress situation, seeing how they will react upon discovering the identities (and crimes) of the others. It has become a game of every mind versus the other, as well as their own… and if you’ve seen the movie and/or read the book, you know how it all turns out. Dr. Singer explains the reason for the behavior in situations such as these fictional examples, as well as behavior displayed in situations such as the well-known Stanford Prison Experiment:
These tactics of psychological force are applied to such a severe degree that the individual's capacity to make informed or free choices becomes inhibited. The victims become unable to make the normal, wise or balanced decisions which they most likely or normally would have made, had they not been unknowingly manipulated by these coordinated technical processes. The cumulative effect of these processes can be an even more effective form of undue influence than pain, torture, drugs or the use of physical force and physical and legal threats.
In the works of fiction, the characters usually meet their wit’s end and usually end up killing another or being killed. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, the “inmates” and “prison guards” were forced into new positions of being either authoritative or submissive. For many, it was too much to handle and violence ensued. Stanford was just an experiment and the aforementioned situations were just fiction. What would happen if a criminal used psychological tactics against us in real life? We know of instances when they have been used against victims, but how would law enforcement handle being psychologically attacked?
A good group of detectives you could ask would be those who worked the unsolved case of the Zodiac Killer in the late 1960s. The unknown killer isn’t remembered for his high number of kills (only 5 have been confirmed), but rather the way he taunted police, threatened children, and continuously contacted the media and authorities regarding his crime spree. To keep it modern, I guess you could compare him to the Joker in the Dark Knight. According to Michael Taylor of SFGate.com, in order to keep San Francisco law enforcement on their toes, the Zodiac would write to the newspapers “bragging about how clever he was” and threatened to “blow up school buses or shoot children as they got off the bus.”
To this day, Zodiac “experts” are still trying to uncover the identity of the killer, as well as use criminal psychology and profiling to discover what kind of man he was and what caused his actions. Many believe he had a bad upbringing, while others chalk it up to a mental disorder such as Multiple Personality Disorder (Taylor, 2007). This is a perfect example to showcase the fact that the police and authorities aren’t the only ones capable of psychological games. The faceless killer managed to outsmart the police, frighten an entire city, and vanish forever. It will forever haunt those involved, knowing that the Zodiac Killer could still be out there, but what about the present and future? Will there be another case such as this, with criminals getting smarter, and taking notes of past criminals? We can only hope that if it should happen, modern technology and advanced psychological knowledge will be on our side.
References:
Taylor, M. (2007, March 01). Undying legend of a killer. Retrieved from http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-03-01/news/17234971_1_zodiac-case-arthur-leigh-allen-serial
http://www.factnet.org/coercivemindcontrol.html
Interesting choice of topic here. I like how you used a real life example of a psychological game being used by the Zodiac killer. The very fact that he became most known for because of his taunts to the police, the constant threats to children, and his contact with the media is scary. He used psychological tactics to frighten society. It's scary to think about other criminals using psychology against law enforcement personnel when law enforcement needs to use it to catch the criminals. Keep up the good work. Good job.
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