James Bulger Case Study

Improved Essays
In 1993 Walton Liverpool, the murder of James Bulger occurred. The felons were Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who are known as the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history. Both boys were only at the age of ten when they abducted, tortured and murdered James Bulger, a two year old toddler. The case is considered one of the most unimaginable and horrific case in England.
Both Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were born to ill-educated, working class parents, the details of the boys’ lives constitute a veritable catalogue of social ills. Venables’ parents were unstable and depressed and the father eventually abandoned the family. The boy’s older and younger siblings were both developmentally challenged and he suffered the brunt
…show more content…
Evidence at the trial of the two perpetrators indicated that there were points along the way that they could have changed their course of action. In total, 38 witnesses saw the boys pass but only two inquired about the situation, but both times the boys evaded them by lying and denying, claiming that James was their younger brother or that he was lost and they were taking him to the police station. Instead, they brutalised, sexually molested, and battered the child to death with 27 bricks and an iron bar before laying his body across the tracks in hopes of hiding evidence of their involvement in his death. What made the murder so controversial is not only the gruesome acts, but the unbelievable fact that two ‘angelic looking’ ten year olds could inflict 42 injuries onto a toddler’s body (Dr William – …show more content…
Even though it only lasted 17 days, it shocked the whole world with an unbelievable murder, which effected England’s image of being a ‘secure and safe’ world country. The case caused Britain into anguish and moral panic, so much so that the Shadow home secretary Tony Blair had to give a speech in Wellingborough to calm the nation, during which the Home Secretary said "We hear of crimes so horrific they provoke anger and disbelief in equal proportions... These are the ugly manifestations of a society that is becoming unworthy of that name”. The case caused havoc and made the country feel insecure, disbelief and damaged the country’s representation of a ‘safe and secure’ country, because as Tony Blair says “the crimes were so

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Why Boys Become Vicious

    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In his excerpt for The Examiner “Why Boys Become Vicious”, award winning author Sir William Golding implies that people's reasons for evil, regardless of whether they were born with cruelty or their situation brought it out, is greatly affected by their home environment, social situation, fear, and chaos. This stand ties into one of the oldest debates in the history of psychology is the Nature vs Nurture which centers around whether a person's development is predisposed in his DNA, or a majority of it is influenced by early environment and development. The research of multiple psychologists and scientists, as well as the abundance of examples of children who have openly exhibited the cruelty Golding refers to, validate his claim. Golding argues…

    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Frank Timmons Case Study

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Summary Frank Timmons lived in a large metropolitan city and was the second youngest of thirteen children. His parents divorced and some of his siblings say their dad Billy was strict but the house was peaceful, others say he was verbally abusive and an alcoholic. His mother, Loretta, died when he was 12. The older siblings, mainly Margaret, took care of the younger siblings, though Margaret has many issues mentally and emotionally from possible sexual abuse and could not maintain relationships and jobs and may have ended up like their father. Frank played sports in school but did not graduate high school.…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    This book gives me the strongest feeling,and once again deepened my belief that I have always believed in: the early experiences of life - especially family education - have a crucial decisive role in the life trajectory. In fact, after closing the book, I looked at the question with interest: if the two five-year-old Wes Moore in front of me, let me predict which one will grow up later, I can guess Right? On the surface, they are quite similar in their situation: their families are ordinary, supported by mothers and matrilineal relatives, and fathers will not appear in their lives, living in ethnic communities with concentrated ethnic groups, and Baltic and New York. Bronx), the corner is more than idle or to drug trafficking for young men.…

    • 330 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    And the Critical perspectived which argues that violent crimes are most frequently supported by the interestsd of the wealthy, those in political power on in dominant social groups (Wood 2015 p6). With the production of media over-reporting on violent crimes or only to what is a concern to audiences this mis-represents the actual crime levels within…

    • 1501 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Brock Turner Case Study

    • 1677 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Brock Turner is a Stanford athlete, a victim of college drinking culture, but also a sex offender. In any case of duplicity, the perpetrator can be defined in one way, but also the opposite depending on what lens is adopted. In the case of Turner, what is true from every perspective is on a Saturday night, January 17th, 2015, Brock Turner was found on top of a half-naked girl behind a dumpster by two graduate students (Stack). He did not rape her, but he was convicted of sexual assault on three felony accounts and sentenced to 6 months of prison and 3 years of probation (Stack). According to Turner and his father, he was a victim of college drinking culture.…

    • 1677 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The boys often partook in criminal acts such as vandalism and shoplifting, consequently labelling them criminals (Truth About the West Memphis Three 2011). As a result of their primary deviance, the combination of the boy’s prior known association with criminal acts, class and their physical appearance made them targets. With increased media attention on the case, came a greater strain on the West Memphis police to find the murderer(s). The crime scene found was blank, which meant that many scenarios on how the boys were murdered could be created. Unable to find reasonable suspects…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    At the age of 17, when he was still a junior in high school, Christopher Simmons, the respondent here, committed murder. About nine months later, after he had turned 18, he was tried and sentenced to death. There is little doubt that Simmons was the instigator of the crime. Before its commission Simmons said he wanted to murder someone. In chilling, callous terms he talked about his plan, discussing it for the most part with two friends, Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer, then aged 15 and 16 respectively.…

    • 1532 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Often time when we think of children, we don’t think of them as being a capable of much, especially not murder. However, throughout history children have been convicted of committing some of the most heinous murders. “I killed because people like me are mistreated every day. I did this to show society ‘push us and we will push back!’ throughout my life I was ridiculed.…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The case of Jean Charles de Menezes was one of the most brutal and barbaric case in the United Kingdom, where Jean Charles de Menezes was shot shot12 times in the face by the anti-terror police who mistook him as one of the suspects of the suicide bomber who attacked London’s transport system the previous day. The Brazilian victim was spied on by undercover officers before the murder. The surveillance procedure and poor police equipment’s failed to match the photos leading to rushed assumptions and actions at the Stockwell Tube station. The Menezes family after a four-year legal battle ended when they reached a settlement with Scotland Yard of compensation of just over £100,000 plus the substantial legal costs were paid .…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    There was little DNA evidence supporting these two boys murdering the three people. Only after 21 years was a small amount of evidence found. There was DNA under Yarboughs mother’s nails that were never properly identified. This DNA had matched from another sample in a rape murder crime that occurred years after the boy’s conviction.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    James Bulger, the Merseyside toddler whose mutilated body was found on a railway line at Walton Liverpool, in February, was violently attacked with bricks, stones, and a piece of metal by two 10-year-old boys who abducted him from a shopping center at Bootle and took him on a two-mile walk to his death, a jury found at Preston Crown court today. James, aged two, died from multiple injuries to the head said Richard Henriques, QC, prosecuting. His body was then placed on the railway track and was cut in two by a train; according to a pathologist's evidence, the toddler was dead before he was hit by the train.…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Eric Garner Case Study

    • 1005 Words
    • 4 Pages

    To begin with, the case I decided to write about is the Eric Garner case which I feel strongly about. This incident took place in Staten Island, New York on July 17th 2014. It all started when the police officers approached Mr. Garner about selling untaxed cigarettes and tried making an arrest. Eric Garner then tried to explain to the law enforcement officers that he hasn’t done anything. As the officer tried to make an arrest with resistance from the victim, he then wrapped his arm around the 43 year old’s neck.…

    • 1005 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    James Bulger

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages

    James Bulger was a two year old boy, from Kirby, England, who was murdered by two ten year old boy’s names Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. Bulgers’ body was found on a railway line two days after his murder. Thompson and Venables were charged on the 20th of February 1993 with the abduction and murder of James Bulger. In this report it will review several psychological theories trying to explain how two boys so young could commit just vicious crimes. (Urbas, G., 2000)…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    CHOICES David Bannatyne, self-made millionaire, dour hard-headed Scotsman on the TV programme Dragon`s Den, has written his auto-biography in which he tells of a strange encounter. After the Bosnian war he went to Rumania to help fundraise for the orphanages there. He was horrified by the appalling plight of the children that had been abandoned with medical, mental and physical disabilities, all treated identically, chained to their cots. Lying in their mess.…

    • 326 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction In a time when the common idiom ‘kids not acting their age’ has a different connotation altogether, the laws regarding juvenile delinquency have suddenly been pushed to the spotlight. This can be attributed to the belief that the graph of criminal activity by juveniles is constantly increasing. The tipping point of the same was the gang rape of a young paramedic on the ghastly night of December 16, 2012 a juvenile being one of the six perpetrators. The incident triggered nation’s woes leading to a heated debate between child right activists for maintaining the status quo, i.e. maximum punishment of three years and the general public demanding retributive justice for the barbaric crimes committed by juveniles.…

    • 239 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays