The Aileen Wuornos Case: Bending the Criminal Binary of Monsters and Martyrs

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Author(s): Christine Bussey (Judson College, USA)
Copyright: 2023
Pages: 9
Source title: Cases on Crimes, Investigations, and Media Coverage
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Liam James Leonard (University of Winchester, UK)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-9668-5.ch010

Keywords: Criminal Science and Forensics / Criminology & Victimology / Information Science Reference / Social Sciences & Humanities

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Abstract

During an era in which serial killers simultaneously terrified and titillated the American public, Aileen Wuornos stood out in what had largely been, and continues to be, a boys' club. However, unlike her male counterparts, Wuornos incited revulsion rather than enthrallment. Indeed, even feminist advocacy groups, which had championed the right of abused women to defend themselves, were silent when it came to Wuornos's prosecution, incarceration, and execution. To understand this abdication requires consideration of the ways in which understandings of crime, specifically those involving women, are dichotomized. Two decades after the execution of Aileen Carol Wuornos, have these same binaries been bent?

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The Aileen Wuornos Case: Bending the Criminal Binary of Monsters and Martyrs

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