by Elizabeth Hall
Backstory
Born in Chicago IL in 1942 to
Irish Catholic parents John was the second child of three, but the only
boy. All of Gacy’s children attended
parochial school and Catholic church community.
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| Gacy as the Clown photo credit Rotten.com |
John was well liked by his teachers,
held various part time jobs, and was an active member of the Boy Scouts.
Although his relationship with his father was strained because John could never
gain his approval along with the father being abusive, and some serious medical
problems (a clot in the brain undiscovered from age eleven to sixteen, at
seventeen unspecific heart troubles) his childhood was relatively normal.
After an unhappy experience in Las
Vegas, early in the peace and love generation of the 1960’s he enrolled in
college in Chicago and gained a degree in business. During this time, he
excelled at the art of selling. After promotions and accolades at his new job,
Gacy settled down, got married, and ended up managing a Kentucky Fried Chicken
for his father-in-law.
In 1968, Gacy was convicted of
molesting a minor working for him at Kentucky Fried Chicken. This was the
beginning of what would be one of the most notorious killers in American
history. He served 18 months in prison during which time his wife divorced him.
After serving his time, John remarried, became heavily involved with the
Jaycees, had three children, and was viewed as a fine upstanding member of
society.
What no one knew was that he was
homosexual, and preferred violent homosexual sexual relations to heterosexual
relations. Gacy went on to murder 33 boys from 1975-1978, hiding them in the crawlspace
of his house. He Hired young boys to spread lime around his basement to deal
with the odor of decay. Even though there were bodies under the house, this did
not stop John from having barbeques with the mayor attending among other
prominent people in town. If anyone questioned the smell, it was explained away
as a sewage problem.
(Clark County Prosecutor n.d.)
Social Control Theory
- Developed
by Travis Hirschi in 1969
- All humans have the potential to commit
crime
- Crime is socially controlled out of fear
of what others think.
- Conforming or not conforming to social
standards depends on social bonds formed.
- Social Bonds are put into four main
elements: Attachment, Commitment, Heavy Involvement in Conventional
Activities, Common Moral Beliefs
Contributing Factors
to Crime Causation
- Negative Attachment to Family
- Non-Involvement in Conventional
Activities
- Involvement in Non-Conventional
Activities
- Attachment or Non-Attachment to peers.
Behavior Trait Theory
- Developed
by Albert Bandura- late 1970's
- Based
on observing and imitating the conduct, mindset, and affecting responses
of other people.
- Based
on the principal that if we had to learn everything without the basis of
example from others, humans would never learn anything.
- Learn crime and aggression through life
experience.
Contributing
Factors to Crime Causation
- Negative Family Interactions
- Environments laden with violence
Similarities in Theories
Social Control and
Behavior Trait Theories Both:
- Are concerned with familial bonds
although differently
- Are
concerned with what other people think or do
- Involve getting opinions or attitudes
from others
Differences in Theories
Social Control and
Behavior Trait Theories Differ in That:
- Social Control Theory assumes that class
or social standing is responsible for crime, while Behavior Trait Theory
claims that crime is learned from others.
- Control Theory says that negative
attachments to family causes crime where Behavior Theory blames negative
family interactions.
(Siegel, n.d.)
Social Control Theory as Related to Gacy
 |
| Gacy Mugshot photo credit Biography.com |
Pro Control Theory
- Gacy had a bad relationship with his
father – Negative attachment is the only part of this theory that fits
Gacy, especially when you consider that he was hiding homosexuality.
Anti-Control Theory
- Gacy was a prominent member of the
community, grew up in a middle-class neighborhood, ran a successful
business, was an important member of the Jaycees and a Boy Scout Leader.
This theory needs a lot of work to support itself. The idea that he
committed the violent crimes of rape and murder because he wanted to get
back at the upper class is ridiculous, since nothing of the sort was
discovered.
References
Clark Prosecutor. (n.d.) John Wayne Gacy: Executed May 10,
1994 at 12:58 a.m. by Lethal Injection in Illinois. Retrieved from the World
Wide Web March 05, 2010
www.clarkprosecuter.org/html/death/US/gacy237.htm
Rotten (n.d.) John Wayne Gacy. Photo Retrieved from the
World Wide Web March 04, 2010
http:
www.rotten.com/library/bio/crime/serial-killers/john-wayne-gacy/
Siegel, L. J. (n.d.) Criminology the Core. Third Edition.
University of Massachusetts, Lowell: Thompson Wadsworth & Cengage Learning.
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