Jeffrey Dahmer : Serial Killer

Jeffrey Dahmer was a notorious serial killer in the late 70’s throughout the early 90’s. What made him stand out from most serial killer’s was what he did to the bodies of his victims. During this research paper, I will cover his childhood life, what led to his lifestyle of killing and cannibalism and also the crimes that were committed during his murderous acts. I will also compare what theories relate to Jeffrey Dohmer and what could possibly be the reason why he did what he did.

Out of all the Infamous killers in the U.S the two well-known killers that I will be researching are Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy. These two murderers share many similarities such as their backgrounds, Crimes, and Motives. Both Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy are serial killers who’ve killed over a dozen people each. They’ve committed crimes including rape, murder, and kidnapping. In this research paper I will be comparing and contrasting the two serial killers.

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

Jeffrey Dahmer is a notorious man and it is for all of the right reasons that he has been labeled notorious. From 1987 to 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer murdered, sexually assaulted, and dismembered seventeen young men. He has been defined as many different things: necrophile, sadist maniac, psychotic, and many more. There were many signs that led up to his deviant behavior. A look into his adolescence will show some of those clear signs.

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

Murder, willingly taking another human's life, is considered a heinous crime in the United States, and from the sociological perspective, breaks an important more. Serial Murder, therefore, is a sociologically deviant phenomenon where a person kills two or more people in distinct events, and an FBI overview of serial killers states “No single cause, trait, or even a group of traits can differentiate or identify serial killers … from other types of violent offenders” (FBI). We can, however, use sociological perspectives to identify potential factors in these cases. As a boy, Jeffrey Dahmer was described as being a loner and a poor student- and had been sexually abused by a neighbor. He is homosexual, and all of his victims were males- which

Within the various fields of criminology, the examination of the reasoning behind why individuals commit crime is important in modern debates regarding how crime should be controlled and prevented. Over the years, numerous theories have developed and continue to be explored – both individually and collectively. Some of the most significant theories with regards to the criminal behaviour of Jeffrey Dahmer include: rational choice theory, attachment theory, differential association theory, biosocial theory and social control theory. This assignment will focus solely on social control theory and how it relates to the case of Jeffrey Dahmer.

A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people, usually in service of abnormal psychological gratification, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant break which can also be called a "cooling off period” between them. There are different types of serial killers. Some are mission oriented serial killers; others are visionary killers. There are equally power and control killers and thrill or hedonistic killers. There are many serial killers in the world at large with different motives for killing. Some people are serial killers on their own while others kill as a couple. In this case, we will talk about serial killers as a couple. We have the Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo who have a mix of hedonistic killers and power and control killers. We equally have Ray and Faye Copeland which also falls under power and control killers. The paper will focus on the background, victims, and trail of Ray and Faye Copeland and Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo.

Serial killers have fascinated the imaginations of people for a long time. One of the most notorious serial killers is Jeffrey Dahmer whose gruesome murders shocked the nation. Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer also known as Milwaukee monster was a notorious American serial killer and sexual offender in the 1980s and early 1990s. Between 1978 and 1991 Dahmer had murdered 17 men. His victims were usually raped, tortured, dismembered, and cannibalism was also involved. Jeffrey was a troubled child psychologically and his social skills had a lot to be desired. All the way through his childhood he was ignored and had queer fantasies of cadavers. In his adulthood this psychosocial status quo didn 't change and was in fact aggravated.

After developing a fascination for the mindset of criminals at an early age, two cases that I personally found most gripping were those of the infamous Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen. Like most people in the UK, I too am familiar with the crimes of Nilsen, the Scottish serial killer well known for forming sexual relationships with his victims. Albeit the second serial killer is less well known in Britain, Jeffrey Dahmer is a household name in USA and became particularly famous for cannibalising and sodomising his latter victims.

Serial killers are one of the biggest mysteries to the rest of humanity. The way they think and act is terrifying but also fascinating because other people don’t think in the same way. So when we see someone so sadistic and emotionally detached we want to know more about them. We want to know what their childhood was like, if something happened in the early development of their lives or if they were just wired that way from birth. Two of the most popular serial killers are Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. They both started killing people in their young adulthood, progressively becoming more and more addicted to the thrill it gave them leading up to their arrests later in life. However, they had very different home lives and experiences that lead to their fates.

Jeffery Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. During his early childhood he seemed to be a happy normal child. When he was six years old he had to go in for an operation, which scared him not only physically but also emotionally. “He became increasingly insular and lacking in self confidence” ("Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer."). This was one of the first signs of Dahmer’s psychopathic tendencies showed. During this time the family moved from Iowa to Ohio. As Dahmer got into his early teens he was very isolated and friendless. The biggest stressor in his life was his parent’s tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce. The fighting of his parents would have had and affect on him, taking the fights personally caused Dahmer psychological stress leading to him becoming a murderer. These events show how much Dahmer’s childhood was not as perfect as some are led to believe. The imperfections are what led to his psychopathy. Dahmer later went on to become a sex offender and serial killer for which he killed 17

Throughout history, people have been fascinated by the topic of serial killers, primarily because one cannot understand why an individual would be willing to take multiple lives with no remorse. For many years investigators, sociologist, and criminologist have continuously researched these individuals. Current research on anti-social personality disorder and psychopathic behavior has led to information on serial killer’s biological development and environmental factors. There is very little information focusing on the killer’s child hood which may have played a part in the individuals violent killings later in life. This case study will focus on Jeffery Dahmer, while tracing his psychological dysfunction back to his