Ed Smart Weighs In On Jaycee Kidnap Case

(CBS)  The Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapping saga brings to mind the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart, who returned home to her family after nine months.

To talk about the case, Elizabeth Smart's father Ed Joined The Early Show Friday to talk about the case.

Asked if he was surprised that Dugard, who had access to phones and contact to the outside world, remained captive for 18 years, Smart said, "No, not at all. I don't agree with your fellow there on Stockholm Syndrome because I think that in many cases, these children do try to escape, and after numerous attempts they feel it's hopeless, and so they try to survive. And that's not necessarily bonding with these monsters."

Photos: Jaycee Lee Dugard
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"I know Elizabeth did not bond with them. And I resent very much people talking about her moving over, the point being that Elizabeth wrote in this diary and said that she did not like them, that she was not attached to them, and that she loved her family. So I resent very much that people say it's Stockholm Syndrome. It is a matter of survival. When you've been abducted, you know what they're capable of doing. You know, when you're assaulted, when you're molested, there is, you know, no question that this person is capable of doing many things. That does not mean that they will connect with this person and bond with them," he added.

"But if I may just say that her stepfather told me this morning that Jaycee feels incredibly guilty because she did bond with her captor, I'm wondering if that's perhaps because she had two children with him," co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez asked.

"You know, I'm sure that she cared very much. To me that even complicates it more because certainly she had concern for her children. Heaven only knows what they all went through. I still don't agree that, you know, the Stockholm Syndrome answers that question."

Asked if his daughter Elizabeth would be willing to meet with Jaycee, Smart said, "You know, I'm sure she would be happy to talk with her about moving forward with her life, that, you know, this is a segment, you know, that she needs to somehow work out and put behind her, that she has a wonderful life ahead of her."

"Can this girl go back to being a normal human being, or is there always a part, in your experience, that's just not ever the same?" Rodriguez asked.

"You know, I think that, you know, things can never be the way they used to be, but there can be a new normal for them," Smart said. "The thing is finding out what that new normal can be and being able to move ahead with your life."

[Lyzvon]

If psychiatrists ran the world, we would all have a "syndrome". Sometimes the most simple answer to a question is staring you in the face. While, 9 months and 18 years are a HUGE difference, I do agree with Mr. Smart. I do not agree that some sort of "emotional bond" is what kept Jaycee from escaping. Try fear. This girl was stripped of everything she knew and then stripped of her dignity, her humanity, her youth. Humiliated, degraded, manipulated and made to feel like nothing- because that is exactly what abuser's do, they maintain control over their victims in every which way possible. Jaycee was 11 when this happened to her and in probably no way prepared for something like this to happen (who would ever want their child to be?). Her captors knew this. Why do you think they went after a child and not someone older??? Because she would be easier to manipulate and control and keep her that way. That's not bonding, that's torture! Soon enough, victims give in because it is all they know. Hope is torn away from them, their own thoughts and emotions are taken from them- they are beaten down in every way possible; they are told how to think and how to feel and what to do and exactly how to do it. Soon, they do not even know their own feelings. It is an emptiness within you that you cannot fill. And the way you live is in routine; you know what to expect so you just do it. Many women of all ages remain in extremely abusive relationships even though they tell everyone else they want to leave. In Jaycees case she was forced into one and completely depleted of her own identity. Jaycees identity became her abusers because that is all she was allowed to experience. Again, that is not bonding, that is control & torture. She was not allowed to be Jaycee at all, she had to be a "robot". They even called her by a different name for Christ sake! She was not even given the dignity of keeping her own name! With that said, does anyone think that she was actually allowed to make her own choices??? Do you think they allowed her to wear what she wanted to wear? Eat what she wanted to eat? Go where she wanted to go??? Of course not, she was "trained" to behave like one would teach a dog. Do you think that either of her abuser's ever once genuinely asked Jaycee what she "liked" or what she "wanted"? Of course not! How else is it that we as human beings learn who we are and discover our own identities??? We experience, we choose, we learn and through these steps we develop into our own identities. Jaycee was given none of that and it was done for the soul purpose to control her. On the RARE occasion that an abuser/attacker asks his victim a question of "preference" it is a rhetorical question and the victim knows that she must answer with what would make the abuser happy or there will be a punishment. The only part of Jaycee that was left over was her two children. That is not bonding, her children became her only sense of identity in this God-awful situation. God only knows what these people said & did to her completely. I am sure that most of the general public do not truly want to know the details but we cannot assume that for any reason that 18 years passed by at the "choice, approval or even submission" of Jaycee. Even submission is a choice, where you give your choice freely to someone else. Jaycee did not even have that much- it was take from her when she was 11. In my opinion, they both deserve the death penalty. Until we as a nation put our feet down and show people like them that this kind of behavior is intolerable, we only enforce it. If we actually executed pedophiles and rapists AND I MEAN MALICIOUS PREDATORS, not teenagers being stupid, and stopped making excuses for why they are the way they are and stop allowing them to continue to hurt our children, maybe, just maybe, we might make a "dent" of a difference in the future generations of our offspring. What the public needs to remember IS THAT 18 YEARS PASSED BY BECAUSE OF JAYCEES CAPTORS AND NO ONE ELSE!

[mattilynn]

I really admired Ed Smart's words here. I never liked the "bonding" term being used with the Stockholm Syndrome. I ,rather, believe that victims do what is necessary to survive. And being that they are young, these victims are manipulated by their captor. This captor's interview with the news shortly after being incarcerated was disturbing. He demonstrated he is such a manipulator and NOT a mentally incompetent man. He has been planning his defense for years, knowing that one day jaycee would or could get freed. So,he has used manipulation on her.
Ed Smart needs to be some kind of leader for this terrible "plague" upon our society. We have to do something more with sexual predators. They DO not stop their actions, and I don't believe any of them should be allowed to be in society AT ALL. This whole story just brings me, a mother with a young daughter, to tears, knowing there were so many times police were in the home and "checking". I don't think any kind of search is going to find these kids all the time. I just think they need to be locked up forever once caught like this man was prior to kidnapping jaycee.
Instead of spending money on healthcare, we need to spend more on jails and places to hold criminals like this. And even allowing death penalty more speedily.

Big thanks to Ed Smart for speaking out and showing up the so called "experts" who have not lived the nightmare like his own daughter, Elizabeth did.

[rdbrock]

In my opinion, the abductions of Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Dugard bear little comparison. Elizabeth was missing for 9 months before returning to her family; Jaycee Dugard was missing for almost two decades, and had two children by her captor, one of which is now 15 years of age, which means she was born when Jaycee was around 15. The only similarity I see between the two cases are that both were abducted.

I think Ed Smart's out-of-hand dismissal of Stockholm Syndrome based on his daughter's experience does not necessarily apply in the case of Jaycee. The difference between 9 months and 19 years is huge. Plus, with the kind of isolation to which she and her children were subject, I think the tendency to bond with one's captor just to have a sense of belonging, or possibly even to simply keep from going stark-raving mad, would be very strong.

I almost get the sense that Smart's obvious "distaste" for the idea that his daughter could have become "attached" to one of her captors colors his reasoning in the case of Jaycee.

As for them getting together: that's an idea straight out of the halls of media hype.