I. Background Research Deviance or deviant behavior is behavior that departs from social norms. While all three theories are linked under the social process umbrella and believe that people that are delinquent and those that are not delinquent share the same feelings about society and the role it plays in their lives, they have different beliefs as to how someone does deviant and criminal activities. Social learning theory proposes that people are born good and learns to be bad (Siegel, L., 2013). Criminal behavior and values are learned when an individual associates themselves with another individual that engages in criminal misconduct. Thus the styles of crimes are learned through personal bonds amongst groups. Adolescent children …show more content…
The social control theory plays a big role in the case of Aileen Wuornos. Her life was destined for failure and she was very unhappy person. Her mother Diane, who was a child herself, rejected her and her brother Keith and her father was a known sex offender. Aileen did not know how to find pleasure in a normal relationship due to the fact that she had never had a bond with her parents or grandparents, thus causing her to become detached from others. Aileen believed that she could never do anything right because people always told her negative things about herself. She had very little self-control and developed obsessive, uncontrollable, and selfish tendencies. She started engaging in sexual activities with boys in her school in trade for food, drugs, and cigarettes. The social reaction (labeling theory) is also a part of her case. Aileen was labeled as a repulsive prostitute who engaged in a bisexual relationship and society looked at her as an outcast. In the eyes of society, she was a disgrace to womanhood and people frowned upon her. She was also labeled a murderer and she denied the title and tried to convince the judge and jury that she had murdered her first victim in self defense. Claiming that he raped her and got what he …show more content…
Her first victim was a middle aged man by the name of Richard Mallory from Clearwater, Florida. He picked Aileen up on interstate 75 while she was hitchhiking. He was the owner of an electronic repair shop. At times he would close his business so that he could go on his drinking and sexual escapades which could last for a couple of days, making it hard for people to realize that he was missing. It wasn’t until Mallory’s 1977 Cadillac was found in Daytona, Florida in late November of 1989. His body was found on November 13th by some young men that were looking for scrap metal in a wooded area with multiple gunshot wounds. At the time his body was found there were no suspects or leads so the case was classified as a cold