Aileen: A Text/Reader By Stacy Maliacoat

The video “Aileen” talks about a woman called Aileen Wuornos who was abused by her guardians, more specifically by her grandfather. Additionally, the book Women and Crime: A Text/Reader by Stacy Maliacoat holds valuable theories useful in interpreting and understanding the cntext presented in the film. The woman faced a rough childhood where she witnessed the battery of her mother by the father. Understandably, her father Pittman did not appear as a guardian figure because she never met him. However, the fact that the father was charged with sexual assault of children and violence, is an indication that he was a criminal.

Similarly, the mother, Diane Wuornos, filed for divorce because of the behaviour of Aileen Wuornos father. When Aileen was left by her mother, she had to be taken care of by the grandmother. She is reported to have begun engaging in sexual activities at the age of 11. Her grandfather had allegedly sexually assaulted her. She succumbed to inhuman treatment and victimization from the friends of her grandfather who was allegedly supposed to take care of her.

Aileen developed a behaviour of erratic violence.

She was charged on several different accounts of committing criminal activities that mostly involved assault. Her behaviour continued to deteriorate even when she was married. Upon getting married to Fell, she ended up hitting him with a cane (Attorney Depot, 15 January 2013). The fact that she agreed to marry an older person is an indication of the psychological torment that she endured. The torture impaired her judgement to the point of believing that dating older men was a sane activity. Aileen was charged on the account of murder. According to the jury, she had committed seven murders. In her defence, she pointed out that most of them had tried to rape her while she as working as a

prostitute.
Ecological theory
Meaning and definition
The ecological theory can be used to explain the behavioural pattern depicted by Aileen. According to the theory, people adopt their behaviour from the socio-ecological model. The socio-ecological model includes individuals, groups, family, and society in correlation to the behavioural patterns that make up the mainstream cultural norms. For instance, in a society where violent behaviour is the norm, the people living around it will mostly develop the traits.
Application to Wuornos case
The ecological theory relies on the socio-ecological model of the immediate environment. The theory justifies the assertion that human behaviour is linked to the immediate environment and is neither inherent nor cultured but acquired through imitation and occupying. In the case of Aileen, she had acquired violent behaviour based on the socio-ecological model she witnessed while growing up. For instance, Aileen grew up in a family where sexual abuse and criminal behaviour was the norm. The negative behavioural traits made her develop bad judgement as evidenced by the fact that she had a sexual encounter while at the age of eleven.
Furthermore, the fact that her grandparents abused her sexually can explain her decision to indulge in prostitution. Aileen indulged in prostitution at the age of fifteen following the poor and retrogressive patterns in her immediate environment. After she got married to Fell, it was her acquired behaviour that prompted the husband seek a restraining order against her after she hit him with a cane. Aileen had experienced violent behaviour as a child, which made her adopt a defensive attitude while dealing with other people. For instance, even when the jury was passing out her sentence, Aileen did not consider the gravity of killing, but rather she alluded to self-defence arguing that the men were about to rape.