Jeffrey Dahmer
Reed
Criminology
Instructor Steven Cable
Word count: 787 words
Abstract Jeffrey Dahmer was an intensely troubled child who grew up in an environment rejecting him fuelling his loneliness. As an adult his instability only escalated. This has revealed that parental upbringing is of core importance in a child’s development of social skills. As seen with Jeffrey Dahmer he did not receive that socialization bond be it with his parent or other people in his life. All the way through his childhood, Jeffrey Dahmer was ignored and developed a way of perceiving himself as an outsider, rejected by society. This loneliness and sense of rejection grew until it aggravated his compulsion to commit the monstrous crimes of murder,
…show more content…
He often used offerings of alcohol, sex, and money to lure men back to kill them. He also lost connection with social bond when he dropped out of college for his excessive drinking. He was sent to the Army by his father, but he was discharged due to his alcoholism. That withered the bond with his father after disappointing him. His father sent Dahmer to live with his grandmother, possibly to have Jeffrey under close supervision to make sure he did not drink excessively. He also had withered the bond he had with his grandmother when she had become tired of the late-night drinking and bringing men to the house. She eventually kicked him out of her house. I also believe the routine activities theory applies Jeffrey Dahmer. Many serial killers have hunting patterns and that is a sign of the routine activities theory. He always went through the same routine to bribe his victims into coming back to his place with him. Once he drugged them or killed them he would have sex with them and save some of the body parts to eat later on, I believe that is a great example of the routine activities theory. Also he always went to gay bars and the same kind of places from the beginning of his adult hood to the end right before he was arrested and convicted, this is also part of the routine activities theory because he went to the same type of places to hunt his victims. Routine activities theory has been found as a major theory for sexual
According to available information, Jeffrey Dahmer led a virtually pretty normal childhood. He was born May 21 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to his parents’ Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. When he was six years old his brother David Dahmer was born and the family moved to Ohio. During the move Jeffrey became more shy and withdrawn. When he was ten years old his mother was admitted to the hospital for her anxiety. This put a strain on his parents marriage. Also, when he was around 14 or 15 years old, he started to have more thoughts about violence and sex, but “didn't know how to tell anyone about it so he didn't” (Jeffrey Dahmer). Throughout high school, he saw his
Jeffrey Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960 in West Allis,Wisconsin. He and his parents, Lionel Dahmer and Joyce Annette, were an average american family who strived for the best. Jeffrey’s father was a graduate student who wanted to pursue a career as an analytical chemist. His mother worked as a teletype machine instructor. However, Jeffrey Dahmer’s mother was not a stable women. She had a history of psychological problems which meant that her son was susceptible to mental illness due to genetic factors. Growing up, Jeffrey had trouble with interacting with his peers. He also had a peculiar fascination with dead animals and “according to his father, his son was ‘oddly thrilled’ by the sound the bones made and instantly developed a fixation for playing with and collecting animal bones (“Jeffrey Dahmer” Wikipedia).” As he got older, he developed an addiction to alcohol. He started drinking heavily during high school which negatively affected his grades. Another issue that Dahmer faced in his early life was
After the move, when Dahmer went back to school, he was scared and very reserved from everyone else. His teacher even told Dahmer’s parents that Dahmer was not doing as well in school and that he was showing a disinterest in his school work. As Dahmer continued to grow up, his parents’ absence took a toll on him. He continued to become more and more isolated. Dahmer became frustrated easily, but held everything inside. He did not participate in any activities and rather spent his time walking around the woods or exploring the insides of animals. His mother eventually got sent to a neuropsychiatry facility for a month. Dahmer put a lot of her illness on himself, blaming himself for all the issues going on in their family.
Biography of Jeffrey Dahmer, A Murderer Jeffrey Dahmer was born May 21, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He had a typical family, which consisted of his father Lionel Dahmer, his mother Joyce Dahmer, and his little brother David. When Jeffrey was eight years old, he and his family moved to the small town of Bath Township, Ohio. Since Jeffrey didn't have any friends there, he would spend most of his time in the woods behind their house. There he would mutilate and decapitate small animals, mostly dogs, cats, and squirrels.
Jeffrey Dahmer was a fun and active child. He liked to wrestle, run and play with other children. But when his parents started to fight, he felt alone in the world. He began hiding in the woods and collecting the carcasses of dead animals. These carcasses gave him the comfort his family and classmates did not. At the age of 31 he went to jail for the murder of 17 people, where he was killed by a fellow inmate a few years later. What drove such a happy child to become a serial killer?
Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 men between the years of 1978 to 1991 in which he participated in necrophilia, dismemberment and cannibalism (Meyer, 2006). As a child, Dahmer was shy and suffered from low self-esteem. At a young age, Dahmer displayed abnormal behavior starting with the collecting of dead animals and using acid to strip off the meat having necrophilia desires. This escalated in his teen years turning into fantasies of killing and mutilating men. After graduating from high school, he was living alone and the feelings of abandonment returned giving him justification in his mind to commit crimes. Throughout his teens years he abused alcohol, which also lead to abnormal behavior. By the
Jeffrey Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960 to parents Lionel and Joyce Dahmer (Davis, 1998). While living in his birthplace of Wisconsin, Dahmer was described by his father to be “’[v]ery exuberant, he liked to wrestle, liked to run around, ham it up for the camera and he liked to play with kids and get together with them’” (Harris, 1996). As Dahmer entered adolescence, his father earned a Ph.D. in chemistry and the family began to move around Ohio (National Center for Crisis Management, n.d.). After the move, his parents fought often and eventually divorced. During this period, Dahmer became “withdrawn and uncommunicative” (Jeffrey Dahmer, 2017) and
As a child Dahmer faced numerous obstacles to success: he was a poor student who struggled socially and turned to alcohol as early as high school. All of these factors culminated in a young man who had given up on many cultural goals of the time- he wasn’t attracted to women, so having a family of his own was out; he had no real ambition to contribute to the work force, was unable to get “desirable” jobs due to his lack of education and dishonorable discharge, and his family supported him financially most of the time. For a time, he was in the military, but discharge due to his
Jeffrey Dahmer, also commonly known as the Milwaukee Cannibal, is one of America’s most notorious serial killers. In the span of nearly 15 years, between the years 1978 and 1991, it is estimated that Dahmer was responsible for the death of fifteen to seventeen young men (Radford University). As his nickname suggests Dahmer was known for drugging his victims, then raping them, then disembodying them, and if the mood fit him, cooking and eating his victims. Dahmer’s unique case resulted in him being psychologically analyzed and diagnosed by at least seven different psychologists during his trial (Palermo & Bogaerts, 2014). This paper seeks to explore the diagnostics given to Jeffery Dahmer and prove, through the use of available information, their accuracy.
Not long after his dishonorable discharge, Dahmer was sent to live with his grandmother where he got a job, but before long was arrested for drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Soon, the offenses worsened as his alcoholism and emotional issues intensified, including but not limited to indecent exposure, child molestation, and culminating with his arrest for multiple murders in July of 1991. At the 1989 sentencing of Dahmer for child molestation, his father, Lionel Dahmer stated, “There was something missing in Jeff.... We call it a "conscience"... that had either died or had never
Dahmer lived with parents who would fight nearly all the time, parents that would neglect him, and parents who set horrifying examples (Bennett). To add onto the already horrible childhood, Dahmer and his family moved quite frequently--approximately seven times in his youth. As the final move came, Dahmer was completely isolated from his family and was the least bit interested in his education (Giannetakis). Dahmer became alienated from his family because he blamed himself for his mother’s growing depression. With all of this, Dahmer became a compulsive liar, a loner, and an alcoholic by the age of fifteen (Giannetakis). His mother decided to leave Dahmer and his father behind when Dahmer was
Shortly after the birth of his brother the Dahmer family relocated to Ohio for a job opportunity offered to his father. After they moved Jeffrey really started to exhibit signs of introversion with his lack of engagement in activities, not having many friends, and missing emotions. His parents attempted to get Dahmer involved by signing him up for tennis, soccer, and 4-H. At age 10 Jeffrey began his fascination with dead animals. The young boy would ride his bicycle around the neighborhood, and pick up any road kill he could find. Dahmer would then dissect the deceased animals to observe their internal anatomy. Likewise, he would scrape the flesh off the animals’ bones, and then preserve them to keep as a memento. When Jeffrey was around 14 his fantasies of necrophilia began, this also involved the calamitous period of his parents’ marriage. The psychological stress of the demise of his parents’ marriage really weighed heavily on the young adolescent. It was during the time of puberty where Dahmer discovered his homosexual identity. Jeffrey did not expose his sexuality to his family, but did engage in a relationship with another male during this pubescent
Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born on May 21st, 1960 in West Allis, Wisconson. He was born to Mother, Joyce Dahmer and Father, Lionel Dahmer after a difficult pregnancy; with frequent morning sickness and muscle spasms that had Mrs. Dahmer on prescription drugs. Dahmer, who perceived to have a early normal childhood until a serious event occurred. He was described as an energetic and happy child until the age of 4, when surgery was done to fix a double hernia, which affected Dahmers attitude. He had two parents who dearly and loved their only son at the time. Joyce actually had a scrapbook where she recorded the events of her son 's life; his first accident, his first step, his first tooth and even his first scolding. Jeffreys father was a lab-technician
His background and early life mentioned earlier proves his actions of aggression and impulsivity. His diagnosis is ASPD comorbid with substance abuse, and accompanied with sadistic, necrophilia, and obsessive features. The sadistic and obsessive feature comes from his sexual pleasure to harm and control others. Also his obsessive features can be linked with his canabalism. “Dahmer reported that he felt an intense need of consuming the flesh of the dead body in order to incoporate the other in his own self, and he experienced this as a sexual sense of closeness and unification” (Martens,2011, pg.504). His necrophilia feature has been present sense his early adolescence. His low self-esteem, and unsocial behaviors may have easily led him down the path to developing ASPD and his other features. Jeffery’s mother also “suffered from hysteria, depression, suicidal
My Friend Dahmer explores the beginnings of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s mental sickness and how, though he tries to suppress his tendencies, he