Research Paper

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JEFFREY DAHMER AND CRIMINALITY 1

Abstract

In understanding the darkness of human behavior, one need to know what triggers a person’s mental that lead them to become a serial killer. There is a growing curiosity about serial killers which criminologist is still trying to understand the motive. Depictions of a serial killer are insane, mentally disturbed, antisocial, and no remorse for their actions. The fulfillment serial killers gain is during the killing of their victims. The gratification a serial killer get is different compared to a person who killed only one time. Serial killers have a chronic and overwhelming desire to commit murder. Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, also known as Milwaukee cannibal or monster, was a sadistic serial killer and sexual predator in the late 1970s and early 1990s. Jeffrey raped, tortured, and dismembered his victims. Psychologically, Jeffrey was a troubled child and issues with social skills. During his upbringing, he experienced no attention and had unusual desires about cadavers. In Dahmer’s adulthood, his psychosocial current situation didn’t change and was in fact aggravated. This paper will briefly discuss Dahmer’s life from childhood to adulthood. The usage of three criminological theories that explains the relationship between Dahmer’s personality using Freud’s theory of the id, super-ego and ego, Fromm’s theories form clear cut explanations and understanding why Dahmer was a sadist and necrophiliac; and Adler’s different theories explaining his violent and impulsive behaviors and thoughts. Biblical content will also explain Dahmer’s spiritual behavior.

Keywords

Loneliness, nemesis, narcissistic tendencies, psychopathy, serial killer, malignant narcissism, lust killer

Biography (please revise if something is no right or included)

Born as Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer on May 21st, 1960 in Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with auburn hair and blue eyes (Masters, 2020). Jeffrey parent’s where Joyce and Lionel Dahmer. Joyce had a difficult pregnancy; she experienced frequent morning sickness and muscle spasms which she was administered an injection by Dr. Spyres (Masters, 2020). Dahmer’s mother demanded attention, suffered from depression, anxiety, attempted suicide by taking Equanil, in other words a minor tranquilizer (Masters, 2020). His mother recorded the events of her son’s life; first accident, steps, tooth and scolding in a scrapbook. During Jeffrey’s toddler moments, he was spanked by his father at the age of nine months (Masters, 2020). “Fathers, anger should not be provoked in a minor, but discipline and teach them about the Lord when raising them” (KJV, 1970, Ephes. 6:4). The Dahmer family had no family bond. Jeffrey’s mother, Joyce gave birth to another boy in December of 1966, which Jeffrey named, David (Masters, 2020).

At the age of four, in 1963, Jeffrey contracted an ear infection, mild case of pneumonia, and a hernia which later he would undergo a double hernia operation that caused him great discomfort (Masters, 2020). In Psalm 41:3 states, “Even in your sickbed God sustains you; and through illness, God restores your health” (KJV, 1970). With the faith in God, the pain that Jeffrey was feeling after his hernia surgery would never exist. “He of little faith” (KJV, 1970, Matt. 8:26). Yet, he knew about God because in his early age, he knew about prayer. Brian Masters (2020) states that Jeffrey would say the Lord’s prayer, ending the prayer asking God to make him a good boy, amen and his father was a Lutheran.

Jeffrey started showing signs of awkwardness, not able to socialize with other boys in his class, and frustration, while attending Ames nursery school (Masters, 2020). Exposed to a world of chemistry through his father, Jeffrey would use what he learned, by implementing it on the animals. Jeffrey attended the Revere High School and he felt like an outsider, lonely, shy, and it was hard for him to make friends due to his awkward behavior.

Jeffrey continued to display an antisocial behavior. It showed in his isolation from others and developed into a drinking problem as early as 13 years old (Masters, 2020). The people of the neighborhood remember Dahmer as shy and lonely which in turn took effect on him psychologically. When Dahmer was about to turn18 years old, his parents decided to get a divorce. His mother, Joyce took David and he ended up residing with his father. Once the divorce creed was in place, Joyce parted with bitterness, no communication network, and no forwarding address in case Jeffrey wanted to talk with his mother or brother (Masters, 2020). Upon graduating from high school and accepted into Ohio State University, where he skipped classes and spent his time ingesting alcohol. His classmates told to avoid him, and his picture was blacked out by the director of national honor society.

In 1982, Jeffrey was sent to reside with his paternal grandmother in West Allis. Jeffrey’s grandmother said that his behavior grew increasingly strange and she found a stolen mannequin in his closet and a 357-magnum gun. It is also during this time that he was arrested once again in 1982 and 1986 for indecent exposure. Jeffrey’s grandmother (paternal) put him out because she was tired of him staying out late, foul smell, and weird behavior in the summer of 1988 (Masters, 2020).

Jeffrey moved to the west side of Milwaukee near his place of work, Ambrosia Chocolate Factory. Just a day after moving into his new apartment, Jeffrey was arrested for drugging and a sexually fondling a thirteen-year-old boy. Upon receiving a spank on his hand, Dahmer ended up receiving five years’ probation and register as a sex offender. Jeffrey’s first murder was after he had graduated from high school. When he consumed the first taste for killing, his life as a serial killer began. Dahmer was charged with fifteen counts of first-degree murder and convicted him for fifteen life terms a basic life sentence. Serial killer, Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer would spend the rest of his life, incarcerated at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage Wisconsin. There were two attacks on his life the first in July 1994 where he was attacked with a razor blade and survived with shallow wounds. During the second attack in November 1994, Jeffrey and a fellow inmate were attacked with a bar from a weight machine and he succumbed to the head trauma, which later ended his life (Masters, 2020).