Stockholm Syndrome in the Italian court...
Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 11:12 am
We have seen on the news today that the murderer of Meredith Kercher has been sentenced to 26 years in the can. I was quite taken-aback by something I heard about this though, and that is that some of the jurors, and some of the Judge's senior staff, were in tears when the girl was sentenced to the long jail sentence. I've always found the concept of Stockholm Syndrome very interesting but this is the first time I've heard of it in a court. It normally only happens between Police negotiators and hostage takers. Such an empathy builds up that even though they are on opposing sides the Police guy will be very sad, after days and weeks of negotiations, when the armed guys are sent in and the hostage taker gets shot dead. Anyone else fascinated by the concept of Stockholm Syndrome, and have you ever heard of it happening in a forum like that (a courtroom) before?