Jeffery, a notorious serial killer, and a sexual offender killed seventeen males in a span of about thirteen years, registering his first kill in the year 1978. Back then, the term serial killer was still rare and even unknown to most people. As a young kid, Jeffery Dahmer is said to have been a happy kid until the age of four when he had surgery. Other events such as the breakup of his parents and constant moving and relocation of his family are also believed to have caused his violent and criminal ways. Dahmer claimed that his yearning for murder and compulsions towards necrophilia and murder began when he was about fourteen years old. Various theories such as the psychology theories, psychopath theory, and the psychodynamic theory try to explain the cause of Jeffery Dahmer's criminal behavior. This paper will describe in summary the life of Jeffery Dahmer, his criminal activities and some of the causes of his criminal acts while using specific theories to explain the causes.
Summary of Jeffery Dahmer’s Life
Dahmer was born in mid-1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Up to the age of four, he was an energetic, happy kid who loved playing around just like any other kid. At the age of four, he was diagnosed with a double hernia after which he received a surgery (Kwan, 1996). The incident seemed to have changed his life tremendously, and since then he became increasingly withdrawn from other people. He spent almost all his time alone away from other people. His situation worsened with the birth of his younger brother and the continuous moving of his family from one town to another. At the onset of his teenage days, he was totally disengaged and had no friends at all. It is said that his compulsions towards necrophilia and murder started while he was around fourteen years old. His parents also divorced during this time which is also believed to have affected his mentality.
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Dahmer murdered his first victim in the year 1978 just after graduating from high school. He took the boy to his parents' home and got him drunk and then killed him. He dismembered the body parts and put them in plastic bags and proceeded to bury them behind the house. At this time he had started drinking and made quite a habit out of it. He became an addict and later dropped out of college after which his father insisted he joins the army. In December 1978, he was posted to Germany where he lasted about three before being discharged due to his out of control drinking habit. Dahmer returned home and later faced faces several arrests of disorderly conducts. When his father could no longer take it, he sent Dahmer to go live with his granny in Wisconsin (Carlin, 2011).
Dahmer killed his next victim in a hotel room in the year 1987, nearly a decade after his first murder. In a confession, he said that he only work the next morning to find the young man dead and had no memory of what had happened the night before. He bought a large suitcase and transported the body to his grandmother’s basement, where he cut the body into pieces and masturbated on the corpse. He knew well how to dispose of the corpses that no one could ever find any traces. He continued to face charges or misconducts included rape and sexual exploitation of underage boys. At one point, Dahmer faced jail time but was released on the belief that he needed some form of mental assistance or rehabilitation. After his release, he continued with his common misconducts.
He killed more people in a span of a year than he had done in more than a decade. At this stage, he had made it a ritual, even feeding on the flesh of his victims after brutally killing them. He used highly sophisticated weapons and instruments and sometimes explored the use of certain chemicals. He could drill right through a victim's skull in the cruelest way possible while the individual was still alive. He took pictures of every one of his victims and also kept their skulls and private parts in a freezer. It is said that when he was alone, he could look at the picture and the body parts and relieve the moments. Dahmer keenly selected his victims, with a majority of them being criminals who had no serious attachment with their relatives. It was thus not easy to realize that a person was missing, hence the reason to why no investigations were ever carried out.
Jeffery Dahmer was later arrested in January 1991 when a victim of his, broke loose in and ran into the streets. The police went back to his apartment and found many pictures of his last victims which he carelessly left around. It was reported that a majority of his victims were African Americans which intensified racial tension at the time of his trial. The final verdict rendered Dahmer guilty and that is was perfectly sane while conducting his inhuman activities. He was sentenced to life in prison. At first, he was excluded from other inmates but later found his way into the rest by pretending to have become a Christian. In November 1994, he was reported dead, killed by a fellow inmate after they had been assigned a particular duty. Dahmer died at the age of thirty-four years old, having murdered seventeen victims (Backderf, 2012).
Causes of Violence
The surgery at the age of four was a critical turning point in the life of Jeffery Dahmer. Prior to the surgery, Dahmer is said to have been an energetic, happy kid who played around just like any other kid. The operation seems to have interfered with a part of his brain and changed his attitudes and mentality. He immediately developed a new attitude and became disengaged from other people. The birth of his brother which followed after the surgery also seemed to have worsened his situation as the parents put more attention on his younger brother. He felt neglected by his parents and consequently withdrew himself from people around. Other factors that led to his violent behavior include the constant movements of his parents from one city to another. By the time he became a teenager, he had no friends at all. Such a lonely life led him to adopt other bad habits such as heavy drinking (Martens & Palermo, 2005).
Theories explaining the cause of the Dahmer’s violence
Various theories may be applied to try to come up with the exact causes of the violent nature of Jeffery Dahmer. Some of the relevant theories include the psychopathic personality theory, the psychodynamic theory and other psychological theories such as the behavioral theory and the developmental theory. It is clear is clear that Jeffery Dahmer had a mental or a psychological problem which brought compulsions or the urge to kill other people violently. Such a killer finds amusement in killing his or her victims and is never disturbed by the fact that they have killed other people. No regular person in his right mind would kill a lot of people and enjoy it rather feel guilty for the crime. Psychological theories, therefore, would explain better the reasons behind the behavior of Jeffery Dahmer (Chéze, 2010).
The Psychopath Theory
Psychopathy is considered a personality disorder, which comes with persistence antisocial behavior in which an individual is constantly withdrawn from other people. The individual is more often sad but bold in his own actions. Psychopath theory can explain the cause of Dahmer’s violence as he somehow possessed some of the characteristics of a psychopath. He felt withdrawn and disengaged from the rest and had no friends. According to the theory, such characteristics may reinforce certain undesirable habits and behaviors onto the individual. Such people would always feel like every other person is an enemy hence the urge to kill people. A psychopath feels unfit in the midst of other people and finds solace in loneliness where he finds an alternative way of fun and happiness.
The surgery changed the psychology of Dahmer, and he felt like a different person. He felt unfit and uncomfortable staying around other people, so he withdrew himself and had no desire to make any friends. He found solace in solitude and engaged in other undesirable activities such as heavy alcohol drinking and quickly became an addict. He felt the urge to kill other people as soon as he became a young man. His intense desire to murder people may have resulted from the mentality that everyone treats him like a psychopath and that other people are his enemies. In the perspective of the psychopath theory, the surgery could be suggested as the initiation point of Jeffery's violent nature. Other factors simply stirred his already formed mentality and guided him towards his violent nature.
Psychodynamic Theory
According to psychodynamic theory, a person's personality is shaped up by his her childhood experiences. The theory holds that important experiences which a person goes through in his early life, have significant impacts in his personality. Though some critics of the theory hold that the theory does not have sufficient and supporting scientific evidence, the theory tends to come to come to terms with the nature of most individuals. People, who faced challenges growing up such as being bullied either become fearful throughout their life or work out, join the police force in order to feel on top of their childhood bullies. Childhood experiences do have considerable impacts on the personality of people, and the theory illustrates well the story of Jeffery Dahmer.
Jeffery Dahmer passed through serious experiences as a kid which shaped his personality and violent behavior. The surgery changed his mentality and attitude and actively brought in a new, different inclination. Such kind of a deep experienced shaped his personality and created a monster out of him. Apart from the surgery, Jeffery faced other challenges growing up such as neglect which further worsened the situation by ensuring he becomes violent in future. His family moved to different places and later his parents got divorced. Divorce has always had a serious effect on kids especially those at a younger age. According to the psychodynamic theory, the experiences that Jeffery passed through during his childhood shaped his personality and hence caused his violent behavior. His parents should have paid a more close attention to him and ensured he was never neglected to help manage his situation. The major experience that shaped the personality of Dahmer is the surgery which took place when he was four years old.
Behavioral theory
The behavioral theory is based on the principle that every form of behavior is acquired through conditioning. According to the theory, there has to exist a condition which will compel an individual to portray a certain behavior. A condition that leaves a positive effect on an individual equips the individual with good behavioral characteristics. Likewise, a condition doomed to negatively affect an individual may bring undesirable characters upon an individual. The effects of the conditions and experiences that Jeffery faced in his childhood caused his violent behaviors. The surgery, the neglect, the constant movement of his family among other conditions made him despair and consequently become a serial killer. He felt withdrawn and singled out. The solitude nature of his life made him acquire other habits such as drinking alcohol which made him feel better.
In conclusion, Jeffery Dahmer was one of the first ever serial killers who murdered, sexually assaulted and also ate the flesh of his victims. He was born in the year 1960 in Wisconsin and underwent a brain surgery at the age of four years old. After the surgery, his life seemed to have changed, and he was no longer energetic and happy. His parents later had a divorce, and his father married a second wife while he was still a teenager. Dahmer lived a lonely life and had no friends. He killed his first victim in the year 1978 and the second one nearly a decade later. He was later killed while in prison the year 1994 by a fellow convict. Theories such as the psychopath and the psychodynamic theories try to explain the causes of the violent actions of Jeffery Dahmer. Experiences that he went through, especially during his childhood, shaped up his personality and behavior and caused his violence.
References
Backderf, D. (2012). My Friend Dahmer . Abrams.
Carlin, N. (2011). Confession and forgiveness: a pastoral reading of A father’s son by Lionel Dahmer. Pastoral Psychology , 60 (3), 377-397.
Chéze, E. (2010). Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer: a psychobiographical study (Doctoral dissertation).
Kwan, P. (1996). Jeffrey Dahmer and the cosynthesis of categories. Hastings LJ , 48 , 1257.
Martens, W. H., & Palermo, G. B. (2005). Loneliness and associated violent antisocial behavior: Analysis of the case reports of Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology , 49 (3), 298-307.
