Aileen Wuornos — What Made Her Kill?
Aileen Wuornos was one of the first female serial killers to captivate the attention of modern media and is presumed to be one of the first predatory female offenders (Arrigio & Griffin, 2004). This makes her a particularly interesting case study to examine when trying to get a better understanding of female serial murder.
The narrative of Wuornos’ life is one filled with abuse and loneliness. She was abused by her primary caregivers in unimaginable ways. Her series of unfortunate events resulted in an inability to create appropriate attachments and these factors attributed to her propensity to kill (Arrigio & Griffin, 2004).
It is also interesting to note what the story of Aileen Wuornos tells an observer. Her story is one that demonstrated the correlation between parental attachment in childhood and the development of violent behaviour into adulthood. She was an abused girl who went on to murder seven men (Arigio & Griffin, 2004). However, her story demonstrates how female serial murderers may differ from male serial murderers in the ways they experience such events.
Parents play a critical role in the development of socially adaptable children.
Parents teach children how to meet their basic needs, they protect their offspring from harm, and ultimately attempt to create the best possible living conditions for their child to thrive throughout their development.
Unfortunately, not all parents perform these necessary duties. In fact, the parents of serial murderers tend to exhibit behaviours that illustrate a uniquely different environment.
The case of Aileen Wuornos demonstrated the devastating effects poor parenting practises can produce in a child’s life.
Wuornos was severely abused by her grandfather who she believed was her father, she also got little to no affection from her alcoholic grandmother (Arrigio & Griffin, 2004). There was a significant lack of affection from those who were caring for Wuornos growing up.
This started from the beginning of her life with the abandonment of her parents. Her mother was an alcoholic and tried to raise her for about a year until she abandoned Wuornos and left her with a roommate (Arrigio & Griffin, 2004).
Furthermore, her father was convicted of kidnapping and brutally raping a seven year old girl and ended up committing suicide in jail (Arrigio & Griffin, 2004). This demonstrates the extent of abandonment Wuornos experienced in her childhood.
Theories:
Attachment theory is defined as the effects the relationship between primary caregivers through close interpersonal contact can have on an individual’s life (Arrigio & Griffin, 2004). For instance, in the case of the life of Wuornos her lack of attachment to primary caregivers and the abuse sustained by her male caregivers may have influenced the nature of her crimes. She learnt early on in her life that being a physical aggressor gave one power (Arrigio & Griffin, 2004).
The trauma-control model is defined as a model that examines how different traumatizations may attribute to the creation of serial murderers (Hickey, 2016). This model can be applied to the life of Aileen Wuornos. Her life was filled with trauma especially trauma sustained at the hands of male caregivers rather than female.
Therefore, her crimes against strangers may have indicated a dysfunctional coping mechanism for her hatred against the men who hurt her in her early life. These men she killed, were perceived to be no better than the men who abused her. Therefore, her crimes can be understood as crimes of resentment.
However, it is important to note that it is difficult to generalize the case of Aileen Wuornos to those of other female serial murders. This is because her motivation to kill was significantly unique.
Most female serial murderers kill for financial gain and use poison however she killed men who tried to allegedly attack her while she was working as a prostitute (Hickey, 2016). Therefore, the effects of the traumatizations Wuornos experienced may be unique to her case. However, the sentiment of resentment can be further elaborated upon to understand why infanticide takes place.
This sentiment of resentment experienced by Wuornos is also often experienced by women with a compulsion to kill their own children. In many instances, women who commit infanticide experience sentiments of resentment against their offspring in the time leading up to the murder.
For instance, the case of Diane Downs demonstrates a case of a woman with a history of abuse who was in a relationship with a man who did not want children (Tiplady-Bishop, 2020). Her need for approval from her male companion drove her to kill her own three children (Tiplady-Bishop, 2020).
It was the rejection from her partner that drove her to resent her children.
She also tried to play the role of a victim which female serial murderers often do (Hickey, 2016). She did so by alleging that she was car-jacked by a black stranger (Tiplady-Bishop, 2020). However, she did get convicted for her crimes and is currently anticipating a parole hearing (Tiplady-Bishop, 2020).
In essence, Downs’ crimes demonstrate how resentment can become a motivation for murder for offenders of Infanticide.
Therefore, through understanding the narrative of Aileen Wuornos’ life a better understanding of violent offenders can be developed. Her story illustrated the effects a series of traumatizations can have on the life of a girl and her propensity to commit murder.
References:
Arrigo, Bruce 2004 Serial Murder and the Case of Aileen Wuornos: Attachment Theory, Psychopathy, and Predatory Aggression
Hickey, Eric W. 2016. Chapter 9 in: Serial Killers and Their Victims. Cengage Learning.
Tiplady-Bishop, L. (2020, October 14). Where is Diane Downs now? Retrieved November 22, 2020, from https://www.the-sun.com/news/1623586/where-is-diane-downs/
