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Aileen Wuornos Nature Vs Nurture

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Aileen stared back at her grandmother, wide eyed yet unresponsive to the threats flying at her. Red faced and out of breath, her grandmother spewed judgements and insults before finally spitting, “Don't ever let me see your pathetic little face again.” Although she was joyous to be out from under her family's cruel thumb, Aileen quickly threw her things together and took off, truly unprepared for the real world she was about to face. Aileen Wuornos was a victim turned serial killer in 1990. Aileen Wuornos became a violent psychopath because of their environment meaning they were taught aggression.
In the popular nature vs nurture psychological debate, nurture argues that people are molded or influenced by their environment. Aileen Wuornos was influenced by her environment in her childhood. Jane E Brody states, “Children learn from what they see around them, and if what they mainly experience is …show more content…

A criminal with a predisposition means they are genetically inclined to behave and act violently. Aileen Wuornos did not have a genetic predisposition. Kaja Perina determines, “But if the genes play an insignificant role, this would mean that the wrong environment might suffice for a person to turn into a barbaric killer.” Aileen grew up in one of the worst environments as a child, experiencing relentless abuse and mental turmoil from every single one of her immediate family members, which stunted her psychological development and changed her forever.
Albert Bandura believes aggression is a characteristic that is taught. Aileen Wuornos was taught aggression through her tumultuous upbringing and her experiences at a young age. Nurture, rather than nature, governs the psychologically significant aspects of child development, and maturation only applies to the biological. Wuornos was brought up in a turbulent household where nowhere was safe for her, so as a result, left a lasting effect on her

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There are many murderers in the world, making it hard to feel safe sometimes. No one knows the real reason why people begin to commit crimes, there are multiple theories though. It could be because of environmental changes, inheritance, an unpleasant childhood, or they simply choose to. Female murderers are more unheard of than males. Aileen Wuornos was born in Michigan in 1956 (Biography.com Editors, n/d).

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Subject Aileen Wuornos, daughter to Finnish-American mother, Diane Wuornos, and Leo Dale Pittman, was born in Rochester, Michigan on February 29, 1956. Aileen grew up in a dysfunctional family in which her parents divorced before her birth. She never knew her father due to his incarceration at the time of her birth. Her father was also diagnosed with schizophrenia and committed multiple sex crimes against children. At the age of 32 he hung himself in prison.

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Her mother, Diane Wuornos, was 15 years old when she married Aileen’s father, Leo Pittman, on June 3, 1954. Less than two years later, and two months before Aileen was born, Diane filed for divorce. Aileen had an older brother named Keith, who was born February 1955.having previously been in a ward of the state, Aileen subsisted on a vagabond existence as an adult, hitchhiking and engaging in a sex work to survive. She was arrested in the mid-1970s for charges related to assault and disorderly conduct and eventually settled in Florida,

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At the age of 12 Aileen found out the truth. She had also said that she was sexually abused by her brother and her grandfather. These claims have never been identified as true or false. However, she became pregnant at the age of 14 and she claimed that Keith (her brother) was the father. She was then sent to a home for unwed mothers.

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Aileen meets the DSM-IV-TR criteria for both a borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder. Clinical evidence was also available through a psychopathic checklist for a diagnosis of psychopathic personality disorder, leaving Aileen with a rating of 32 (Myers, Gooch, & Meloy, 2005). Scientific evidence has proven that the development of psychopathic characteristics is attributed to biological and environmental influences. Aileen, like her father, carried the personality characteristics of psychopathic personality disorder at the time of their arrest. The genetic influences, combined with the environmental flaws that both were raised with could be contributory factors for the callous-emotionless traits that were witnessed through both of their behaviors.

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Her parents were a couple of teenagers themselves, with her father being a child molester who was sent to prison for sodomizing a 7 year old girl (Bankston, 1996), and her mother being a reckless teen that was totally incapable of the responsibilities of being a mother and who gave up Aileen and her brother, Keith to her parents. Aileen’s grandparents

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She was the daughter of Leo Dale Pittman, who was incarcerated at the time of her birth from a sentence for committing sexual crimes against children and molestation, later taking his own life in prison (Reed, 2017). Her mother, Diane Wuornos, abandoned both she and her brother, Keith, who were later adopted by their maternal grandparents Lauri Wuornos and Britta Wuornos (Reed, 2017). Convicted in 1991, she demonstrated biological factors from her father, who was a criminal psychopath, developmental factors due to her abusive upbringing environment as a child, along with mental disorders including conduct disorder, antisocial and borderline personality disorders. Aileen grew up in a harsh and abusive environment by her grandfather who was an alcoholic that had physically and sexually abused her.

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She was enraged at the Nazi oppression and racial intolerance that she had seen. “My children are safe while others are threatened” (Cole, 1). She soon acted on that anger, by joining the underground National Movement Against Racism (MNCR). While there, she walked the streets

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Retrieved from https://webcourses.ucf.edu/courses/1219515/files?preview=58099701); Published in the same slides, various adoption studies investigated theories of criminal behavior and found that “the criminality of the biological father was a strong predictor of the child’s behavior [and] when the biological and adopted parents were criminals that increased the chances of the child becoming delinquent” (Hagan. (2016). Introduction to Criminology (9th Edition). [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://webcourses.ucf.edu/courses/1219515/files?preview=58099701). Noting that Aileen’s father was a known criminal and that her adopted parents (her grandparents) were also deviant, the conclusion can be drawn that Aileen was not only genetically predestined to become deviant but she

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People’s actions as well as behaviors are all developed as they grow up. As they grow up children begin to develop the same behaviors or actions from their parents. Some adults and children develop psychological disorders. These are mainly caused by Biological influences: evolution, individual genes, brain structure and chemistry; Psychological influences: stress, trauma, learned helplessness, mood-related perceptions and memories; and Social Cultural influences: roles, and expectations (pg.508). As in Mommie Dearest, Joan (Faye Dunaway) has multiple disorders that later on are developed by her daughter Christina (Mara Hobel).

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Psychosocial theories "work from the viewpoint that deviant sexual behavior is a response to external factors and that there is an interconnection between psychological and sociological variables that influence sexual behavior. Sexual behavior is a learned response to particular conditions, and deviant sexual behavior is the outcome of inappropriate socialization. This may result from personal experiences, such as childhood sexual abuse, or be influenced by general factors, such as pornography. " Alcoholic and explosive caregivers raised Aileen, that behavior was later reflected in Aileen herself. At a very young age, she became pregnant after being raped by one of her grandfather's friend.

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The nature vs. nurture debate centers on whether human behaviour and personality are inherited (nature) or acquired (nurture); in other words, whether a person’s environment or a person’s genetic inheritance determines their behaviour and personality. Goldsmith and Harman (1994) adopt a neutral position, in which both nature and nurture influence people, stating that they “believe that the fundamental issue concerns the interplay between characteristics of the individual and of the relationship” (54). Goldsmith and Harman discuss temperament and attachment for infant, with temperament being linked to the nature side of the debate and attachment being linked with the nurture side; as a result, the infant’s temperament influences the attachment bond between the infant and the mother, but the attachment bond influences the temperament of the child as well. Therefore, both nature and nurture interact with each other to produce people’s behaviour (Harman et al. 54). Andersen and Berk (1998) take on the nurture perspective, while Leary (1999) claims that nature is the determining factor of a person’s personality.

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Studies show that nurture has a bigger impact than nature. A feral child is a kid who has lived away from human contact, and she/he has little experience of being taught stuff. Studies show that feral children are not as smart, and they are “babies” when they are found. A girl named Jeanie was found when she was 13. When they found her, she acted like a baby.

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While nurture is most commonly defined as environment and experiences that we have. Although, nature and nurture plays a big role in child development, nurture seems to be a little bit more of an influence on child development than nature. I believe that children learn by experiences that they have. On one side (nature) of this debate; it says that intrinsic influence such as genetics plays a major

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