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

Christine Bussey (Judson College, USA)
Copyright: © 2023 |Pages: 200
EISBN13: 9781668484715|DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-9668-5.ch010
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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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