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A little introduction on Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer and how he relates to criminology
Nature and nurture of jeffrey dahmer
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Out of the six characteristics of a serial offender, enuresis, animal torture, fire setting, pathological lying, chronic daydreaming, and violent fantasies, Dahmer exhibited at least two. Those two were animal torture and violent fantasies. Youngstrom states, “Professionals agree that animal torture is a childhood activity that strongly correlates with psychopathic sadistic offending” (1991, pg. 32). Dahmer became extremely interested in dead animals at an early age. His curiosity was primarily based around the insides of the animals. Before burying or disposing of the dead animals Dahmer would dissect and skin them (Davis, 1998, pg. 30). Neighbors would later recall that Dahmer began experimenting on insects, keeping their preserved bodies …show more content…
His father had moved out of the family home and into a hotel upon their separation. Dahmer's father was unaware that his ex-wife had moved out also, taking their younger son David with her to Wisconsin. She left Jeffrey to live there alone. Upon gaining this knowledge Jeffrey's father moved back into the house with him. However, before this time and shortly after high school graduation Jeffrey, having been isolated and left alone, had the time to fantasize how he would go about killing his first victim. Dahmer’s father tried to help him by signing him up for college, convincing him to join the Army, but he dropped out of school and was discharged early from the Army due to his alcohol problem and behavior. He went directly to Miami Beach after being discharged without telling anyone. While there his drinking was extreme, until he had no money, nowhere to stay, and had been sleeping on the beach for the majority of the time he had been in Miami. He called his father for money; however, his father told him he would not send him money though he would send him a bus ticket to come …show more content…
Showing a possibility of Dahmer’s mental illness having a biological connection. Dahmer's mother had taken a medication during pregnancy with Jeffrey that has been mentioned as a possible contributing factor. He witnessed extreme tension between his parents in his home environment this also could have played a part. Creation science is what made Dahmer realize that the theory of evolution, which he had been a believer of, was a complete lie. Whereby, believing and accepting Jesus as his Savior made him take accountability for what he did. Both Jeffrey and his father argue that the break in practicing faith contributed to Jeffrey's killing spree. When they moved from Milwaukee to Ohio he showed signs of being an introvert. His father states how he tried to help him fit in with peers through joining different
Dahmer was fascinated and did not hesitate to touch or pick them up. According to Lionel Dahmer, he was "oddly thrilled by the sound they made. His small hands dug deep into the pile of bones.” At the age of six, it was discovered that he needed surgery to fix a double hernia. Following his surgery, which coincided with the birth of his brother,there was a drastic change in the once happy, bubbly, outgoing child. Lionel Dahmer states "he seemed smaller, somehow more vulnerable... he grew more inward, sitting quietly for long periods, hardly stirring, his face oddly
Dahmer, for example, essentially wanted others to be submissive to him; this served a basis for having his victims rendered unconscious before he did the truly disturbing aspects of his actions. He also craved the everlasting companionship that having corpses around could satisfy well enough because he also did not want them to leave, either. Suppressing his true feelings also played a major role in the attacks. He refused to share anything, so dark fantasies grew heavier in his mind and eventually led to 17 deaths. Finally, death fascinated him, as well as control, from a young age, which led to him killing and dissolving animals in acid. Simply put, Jeffrey Dahmer had predominantly selfish, compulsion-driven reasons for doing his crimes. In contrast, Grendel was only acrid that he did not have the comitatus that the Danes had. He also hated the songs about God that the people in Herot sang due to God exiling him. While Dahmer obsessed over the concept of death itself, Grendel was more obsessed with the act of killing, even getting giddy over seeing the sleeping warriors in the mead hall. As can be seen, Grendel and Dahmer had wildly different motives for committing their
were also very hard for the Dahmer family to deal with. To many it was
...nd Dahmer”, Jeff Dahmer would go to school noticeably under the influence, yet somehow go by “unnoticed”. If the teachers were aware of Dahmer’s state, they never took any form of action to discipline him, question him, or be worried with his condition at all. Not once throughout the entirety of the graphic novel does a teacher, student, or parent seem remotely concerned with Dahmer’s well-being. Dahmer fought off the urge to kill many times and did it with the help of no one and nothing other than his own twisted mind, so there is reason to believe any type of assistance from an adult could have been detrimental in the process of Dahmer overcoming his violent urges. Unlike Benjie, Dahmer had no one to look up to and admire. Benjie was eventually able to appreciate and respect Butler Craig as a man who cared enough about him to put Benjie’s life above his own.
Dahmer went as far as to dismember and store body parts throughout his apartment after killing them. He would sometimes even eat these dismembered body parts of the body. Some say he went so long without being caught. because he chose the ever shifting population such as drifters and prostitutes. who had no real identity.
Lionel and Joyce Dahmer gave birth to their first born, Jeffrey Dahmer, on May 21, 1960 in Milwaukee. Despite Joyce experiencing a difficult pregnancy, Dahmer was a healthy child who was wanted and adored by both his parents. However, his mother did start to become distant to him as she refused to breast feed him and started demonstrating unstable behavior along with substance abuse. Meanwhile, his father was pursuing his doctoral for chemistry in Iowa which limited the time Lionel had with his family. At age five, Dahmer’s little brother was born and that was when the feeling of neglect set in him. For the first time, the little attention provided from his parents had to be shared with his brother David. Dahmer began displaying extreme shyness but also severe tantrums. During the ages of six and seven, Dahmer “was regarded by other children as odd and bizarre (Martens, 2005).” Even though he did not show any interest in developing genuine social relations, Dahmer did demonstrate a fascination with bug and animal dissections. When Dahmer was six he had “undergone hernia surgery, when he woke up from the anesthesia he was worried someone could have cut his genitals, the pain lasted for one week and after a long recovery period his parents remember he turned to be very loner (Giannetakis, n.d.).” It is believed that at age eight Dahmer had been sexually abused by a boy in his neighborhood (Hickey, 2013). If this event did occur, it could explain why he developed destructive sexual fantasies at the young age of twelve. Despite him being aloof, it has been reported that he would seek attention by faking epileptic seizures at school and local shops. By his adolescent years, he developed compulsive masturbation which would eventually lead to legal trouble (Silva, 2002). At the age of fourteen, Dahmer turned to alcohol abuse in order to overcome his feeling of despair and compulsive thoughts of sexual violent acts.
Brogaard, Berit. "The Making of a Serial Killer." Psychology Today. Sussex Directories, Inc., 7 Dec. 2012. Web. 03 May 2014.
Jeffrey left enough evidence in his apartment to help forensic anthropologists determine the identity of the victims. In the book Skulls and Skeletons: Human Bone Collections and Accumulations, it states “When police searched the Milwaukee apartment of Jeffrey Dahmer (d.1994) they found seven skulls; two on the top shelf of a closet, two more in a computer box, and three others in the top drawer of a filing cabinet that also contained an assortment of bones in the bottom drawer.” Dahmer dissolved the flesh in acid and cleaned the skulls by boiling them. He painted some of them and claimed they kept him company in his solitude. The identities of the skulls were found through dental records.
Print. The. “Dahmer, Jeffrey Lionel.” The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Life. Ed.
With most crimes there are multiple theories behind why a person might have committed a crime. In the case of Jeffery Dahmer the Social Control Theory is just one theory that explains why he committed such a horrifying act. The Social Control Theory states that everyone has the potential to become a criminal, but most people are controlled by their bonds to society (Siegel, 2008). The Theory suggests that a crime usually occurs when the bind people have with society is weakened or broken.
There was no abuse or trauma that was said to have happened during his childhood; however, it was said that he became more reserved as he grew older. He showed little to no interest in hobbies, but he was fascinated by dead animals. During his high school years, he was heavily abusing alcohol which caused his father to make him enlist in the army. He was soon kicked out and went to live with his grandmother, who then reported that he was showing very odd behavior. His parents got divorced in July of 1978 and this took a negative toll on Jeffrey. Dvorchack states, “During the divorce, Jeffrey Dahmer was left alone. His mother moved to Wisconsin with his younger brother, David; his father had moved out of the house. He was left with no food, no money and a broken refrigerator” (Dvorchack). By that time, Jeffrey was already18 and had just committed his first murder. Between 1978-1991, Jeffrey Dahmer had killed over 17 males. Some would say his parents’ divorce and rejection is what caused Jeffrey to get out of hand. Secondly, the standard way of thinking about the topic of serial killers has it that from the day they’re born, they’re going to grow up with the traits of a stereotypical killer. Another
Data has been collecting reporting that “31% of people who had both a substance abuse disorder and a psychiatric disorder (a "dual diagnosis") committed at least one act of violence in a year, compared with 18% of people with a psychiatric disorder alone. This confirmed other research that substance abuse is a key contributor to violent behavior” (Harvard Health Publishing). This can be applied to Dahmer’s case. It is said that after getting hernia surgery when he was four, Dahmer was never the same. He went from a regular playful child to a distant anxious one. When becoming an adolescent, one will develop an interest in concepts and hobbies. For Dahmer it animal carcasses. He would find roadkill, “dissect and dismember them. He explained that he wanted to know how each animal "fitted together"(Cahill). This could come off as creepy and off-putting, but he was not hurting anyone. It is believed that his parents’ constant fighting and moving was the catalyst in making his obsession with carcasses into a dangerous one. “Children from broken homes are nine times more likely to commit crimes than those from stable families” (Bloxham). His drive to kill could quite possibly be linked to the fact that he simply linked to his familial issues. These problems in the family are definitely linked to his drinking problems as well. Dahmer’s
Dahmer was a pretty normal, but very lonely kid. His loneliness followed him throughout the course of his life. Never having an intimate friendship or relationship, along with being consumed with confusion over his own sexuality eventually led him to become the household name he is today. From 1978 to 1991, Dahmer murdered 17 boys and men. Not only is he considered a murderer, but he committed (on several occasions) rape and dismemberment. After his later murders, he was found guilty of necrophilia, cannibalism, and permanent preservation of body parts. He is arguably the most well known, gruesome, and intriguing criminal in American history.
During Dahmer’s psychiatric evaluation, Dr. Wahlstrom concluded, “Jeffrey was suffering from a mental illness never cured for” (FBI 1992). This leads me to perceive that Dahmer must have been displaying psychotic traits that went unnoticed and undocumented during his early lifetime. I can only speculate that this uncured mental illness lead Dahmer to develop and refine his inability to empathize with society; which in turn, lead him to engage in cruelty without mentally comprehending the victim’s suffering. Although the causes for psychopathy are unclear, some suggest that psychogenic aspects can outline abnormalities which may be present in psychopaths (Schmalleger 2014). When looking at Dahmer’s distant relationship with his parents early on in his childhood, I became conscious of the fact the lack of affection from his parents which may have lead him to develop twisted views on how one should display affection to others, thus prompting him to show psychotic behavior later on in life (The profile of Jeffrey Dahmer 1996). Even though the letter of the law fails to describe Dahmer and even if he was not fit to stand trial, I believe the court would have declared him fit for trial due to the brutality of the
When his parents divorced, his father was the one to move out of the house. When Jeff was 18, Joyce took David and left. Jeffrey was alone in the house with little food and a broken refrigerator until his father and his new wife found out about the situation and moved into the house.