Aileen wuornos childhood abuse and bipolar

Aileen Wuornos is remembered as a serial killer who murdered seven men during a killing spree in Florida between 1989-1990. Having grown up in extremely dysfunctional circumstances, Wuornos could almost be said to have been ‘groomed’ for violence and crime. However, her psychological makeup may have left her vulnerable to powerful instincts. Wuornos experienced substantial trauma as a child, which may have impacted the development of her brain and left her at increased risk for deviant behavior that, ultimately, resulted in multiple homicides.

Wuornos was executed for the murders she committed and claimed were in self-defense. Wuornos killed seven men who solicited sex from her as she worked as a prostitute in Florida. Although Wuornos was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder, she was found guilty and sentenced to death for the murders. Though she is known as a notorious female serial killer, she could also be remembered as an example of the dark side of childhood trauma. When examining her childhood and teenage years, it could almost be said that Wuornos never had a chance; her experiences and resulting mental state paved a disastrous path to a life of chaos and crime.

Early Life and Struggles: Exploring Wuornos’s Troubled Background and Childhood

Wuornos never knew her father. Her mother divorced him when Aileen was two months old. He would go on to develop schizophrenia and kidnap and rape a seven-year-old. He committed suicide when Wuornos was 12. Her mother abandoned her and her brother with their maternal grandparents who adopted them. However, the couple were alcoholics and did not provide the children with a good home. Wuornos’ grandfather beat and sexually assaulted her. Before her teenage years, Wuornos began to engage in sexual activities in order to get food or drugs.

At age 14, Wuornos was raped and became pregnant. She placed the child for adoption and was soon kicked out of her hom

Introduction

Aileen Wuornos was a serial killer who committed numerous crimes ever since she was a child. She killed seven men and was named among the first female serial killers in the U.S. she was convicted and given a death sentence and was finally executed using lethal injection (Editors @ TheFamousPeople.com, 2017). Being a subject to horrifying tortures, this essay analyzes various factors of her life that made her become a serial killer (Vronsky, 2007).

Alcohol and Drug abuse

Wuornos was exposed to drug and alcohol abuse at a very tender age. For instance, when she was only 11, she engaged in sexual activities for food, drugs and cigarettes (Editors @ TheFamousPeople.com, 2017).

Psychiatric history and head trauma

Wuornos had some psychiatric issues. She was widely famous for her instability. After her arrest, she was spotted to have schizophrenia which is a bipolar disorder and many other mental illnesses (Vronsky, 2007).

Criminal history

Wuornos’ criminal records started during her early childhood. In 1974 for example, she was apprehended for driving under the influence of alcohol and bad conduct. When summoned, she did not turn up. In 1981, she participated in robbing a convenience store (Editors @ TheFamousPeople.com, 2017). She was charged, jailed and released in 1983. Again, she was arrested for attempting to forge checks and was also among the suspects in a theft case of a revolver (Vronsky, 2007). In 1986, her criminal activities started rising. For instance, she was charged with false identification, car theft, threatening someone with a gun and car theft. She then turned to serial killing. She could pretend to be a sex worker who would then kill her companions in cold blood. She killed a total of seven men and became the first most famous serial killer in the United States (Vronsky, 2007). These killings can be attributed to he

The case of Aileen Wuornos, executed in Florida for the serial killing of seven men, is studied to determine her degree of psychopathy and the presence or absence of sexuality or sexual sadism as a motivation or gratification for her crimes. The authors, one of whom evaluated the subject shortly before her death, determined that she evidenced a psychopathic personality (PCL-R score 32). She also met DSM-IV-TR criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder. While her killings ostensibly were carried out during routine acts of prostitution, there was ambiguous evidence that her crimes were sexually motivated or gratifying. Her articulated motivation was robbery and elimination of the witness/victim. After carefully considering all available data, the authors concluded there was no convincing evidence of sexual sadism in either her personal history or her method of committing serial murder, and it remains unclear whether sexual gratification was to some degree a motivating factor in her commission of these offenses. The confluence of early childhood attachment disruptions, severe psychopathy, other personality disorder pathology, and a traumagenic abuse history likely contributed to her having serially murdered seven victims.