Category Identification
The category that Aileen Wuornos identifies with is the control category. Control killers may have been abused or witnessed violence which sparked their murders. The main objective for this type of serial killer is to gain and exert power over their victim. Such killers are sometimes abused as children, leaving them with feelings of powerlessness and inadequacy as adults. Many power or control-motivated killers sexually abuse their victims, but they differ from hedonistic killers in that rape is not motivated by lust (as it would be with a lust murder) but as simply another form of dominating the victim. (Scribd, 2015).
Wuornos was a sex worker who claimed that while working, her clients had raped or had attempted to rape her. She also claimed that she killed in self defense. Intensely sexually and physically abused as child and teeanger, Wuornos had significant trust issues and may have believed her clients were attempting to rape her. |