Crime Causation - The Case of Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Even as a child, Dahmer had necrophilia impulses, collected dead animals, and impaled the heads of animals he killed on stakes in his yard (Jeffrey Dahmer, 2009). Abandoned by his mother after having been molested by a neighbor, Dahmer's childhood was one of rejection and feelings of loss. He lived with his father and stepmother and was abandoned again by these parents after he graduated from high school. He killed his first victim, a young hitchhiker named Stephen Hicks, when he was 18 years old, but did not kill again for nine more years (Jeffrey Dahmer, 2009). Overall, Dahmer was responsible for killing 17 people over a period of 14 years. In February 1992, Dahmer was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences for a total of 936 years. However, while in prison, he was murdered by another inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wisconsin (Mathews & Springen, 1992).

Analysts who have studied Dahmer's case, including David Nichols (20006), assert that Dahmer is representative of a typical serial killer who finds excitement in the act of killing and brutalizing his victims. Having experienced abandonment and betrayal and victimization, Dahmer adopted a modus operandi and personae characterized by a strong external locus of control, excessive and superstitious fears regarding being revealed as a homosexual, fascination with gay pornographic films and extremely violent videos and tex

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aggressive and many offenders who are aggressive do not have higher than normal testosterone levels. Genetic theories of criminality as described by Akers and Sellers (2004) tend to reflect not only the notion that criminality or a propensity towards certain types of acts is genetically encoded but that nurture or environmental influences are instrumental in allowing such tendencies to develop. Certainly, Jeffrey Dahmer's birth mother was an abusive alcoholic and he was victimized sexually as a young child (White, 2007; Nichols, 2006). At the same time, Dahmer was fully cognizant that what he was doing with his victims was wrong as is evident in the extensive precautions he took to secure his home. Psychological theories may be most appropriate in this instance. Lilly, et al (2007) maintain that individuals like Dahmer may well be initially victims of abuse who then transform their anger into aggression towards others. They are likely to have limited self-control when aroused and to be impulsive, risk-taking, shortsighted, and insensitive to others. Based on Hirschi's social bond theory and self-control theory, Lilly, et al (2007) have proposed that serial killers like Dahmer are literally driven by the need to act o

Category: Psychology - C