Jeffrey Dahmer Case Study

er was a serial killer that committed 17 murders over a period of 13 years. A serial murderer is someone that has “killed 3 or more people over a period of days, weeks, months, years, or decades” (Fleming, 2014). Dahmer is a killer that had many paraphilias that will be discussed as well as the characteristics that classify him as a sexual sadist. A sexual sadist is someone that experiences sexual pleasure from acts of cruelty (Marshall & Kennedy, 2003). Dahmer chose a select type of victim groups, this case study will find out why he chose those victims and what his intentions were. The behaviour of Jeffrey Dahmer was one that resembled a serial killer with a number of signature behaviours ranging from lack of remorse to cannibalism.

The victims Dahmer chose fit the victim groups told by Dr. Fleming. Dahmer’s victims would mostly be gay African-American men (Biography.com, 2014). According to Dr. Fleming, the most sought out victims are visible minorities and gay men (Fleming, 2014). The modus operandi or method of operation refers to the way the killer attacked, seduced, and killed the victim. Dahmer’s method of operation was to seduce the victim to his grandmother’s house or his apartment to have drinks laced with drugs then strangle the victim (O 'Reilly, 2014, p. 147). The method of operation for strangulation has been known to be “more personal” giving control to the killer (Fleming, 2014). As Dahmer’s goal was to get closer to the victims by creating zombies and shrines of the victims, strangulation is a necessary route in order to be personal with the victim. It was after the police charged Dahmer that the family noticed compartmentalization. Compartmentalization is when a murderer is able to separate their behaviour of a murderer and a socially ‘normal’ life (Fleming, 2014). After Dahmer was sentenced, his family had no idea he had become a killer. Dahmer’s father showed a clip of Jeffrey laughing and smiling as a normal person unware of the dehumanised sadistic murder inside Dahmer’s corrupt mind (Biography.com, 2014). Dahmer committed 17 murders over a 13 year period. Dahmer was able to hide his sexually sadistic thoughts through

Research in Marshall and Kennedy’s work shows that serial killers are highly organized. This is because serial killers usually have higher IQ and I higher number of paraphilias (Marshall & Kennedy, 2003, p. 3). As Fleming explained in his lectures, disorganized killers are more likely to be drop-outs, live alone, sexually ignorant, strangle, use the murder site as the dump site, and unplanned (Fleming, 2014). Dahmer has more characteristics of a disorganized killer. Dahmer never made it far in life with a drinking problem in high school, flunking out of university and, being kicked out of the military. Dahmer was never able to keep a relationship and lived either with his grandmother or alone for most of his life. Dahmer’s sexual ignorance led him to strangle his victims which are two characteristics of a disorganized killer (Biography.com, 2014). Dahmer’s lack of planning led to two main reasons he is considered a disorganized serial killer. Dahmer would use the same site of his murders as the dump site. The victims would be killed in Dahmer’s apartment as well as, cut up, stored, decomposed, cooked then eaten. The decomposed and cooked flesh would then lead to a stench throughout the apartment reported by neighbours of Dahmer (Biography.com, 2014). Dahmer showed many characteristics that describes him as a disorganized