Jeffrey Dahmer Research Paper

Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial killer active between 1978 and 1991, during which time he murdered 17 young men. His first crime took place when he was 18 and living with his family in Ohio. Just weeks after graduating high school, he picked up a hitchhiker and took him back to his parents’ house. When the man attempted to leave, Dahmer struck him in the head with a barbell and killed him. This first victim was dismembered and buried in the nearby woods. As Dahmer was driving with the body parts in black garbage bags in his backseat, he was pulled over for crossing the centerline. As the officer wrote the ticket, he asked what was in the bags. Dahmer said he was taking garbage to the dump, and the officer allowed him to go on his way (McGregor, 2005). It would be the first of many missed opportunities by law enforcement to stop Dahmer’s impending murder spree.

In 1988, one of Dahmer’s victims escaped. The police became involved, and Dahmer was arrested for child molestation. Dahmer only served part of his sentence and was able to convince the judge that he was reformed and would not do it again. He was released on

probation, but that did nothing to hinder his urge to kill. Three years later, neighbors would call police again. This time it was to report a disoriented, naked, bleeding boy running the streets near Dahmer’s apartment. Dahmer was able to convince the officers that the boy was older than he looked, was his lover, and was drunk. The officers, who were later suspended over the incident, said they did not want to get involved in a homosexual domestic dispute. So they escorted Dahmer and the boy back to the apartment and left. They did not even check Dahmer’s identification – otherwise they would have seen he was on probation and handled the case differently. Dahmer later told police that he strangled the boy soon after the officers left and that a body was in his bedroom when the officers were present (Officer defends, 1991).
Later that same year, Dahmer would encounter the police again and his luck would finally run out. Tracy Edwards manage to escape after being attacked, one hand still caught in handcuffs, and flagged down police. He took them back to Dahmer’s apartment, at which point police finally realized what had been going on in those rooms. Dahmer was then arrested, in police began an investigation to identify the victims and piece together his activities.
It could be said that there was little cooperation and meaningful communication between the community and the police force. Most of the failure could be blamed on law enforcement. The officers who returned the boy to Dahmer, only for him to be killed soon after, were accused of being racist due to the fact that the officers were white, the boy was Asian, and the women reporting the incident were black. Others accused them of being homophobic and allowing their prejudices to get in the way of doing their job properly. The officers aggressively denied all of this and defended their actions as the internal investigation took place. This breakdown of communication and cooperation allowed Dahmer the chance to kill for more men before he was caught.
ViCAP and CODIS were both in use by the time Dahmer was arrested. However, CODIS was extremely new, having only been implemented as a pilot software program in 1990 (CODIS Brochure, n.d.). Dahmer’s DNA would not have been in the system yet, despite his previous child molestation charges. ViCAP had been in use for a few years, but it still did not serve to help in the case. It would seem that police were not even aware that someone was killing young men in Milwaukee because Dahmer chose victims who were unlikely to be missed. Even when law enforcement crossed paths with him, they claimed they had no reason to suspect that he had killed anyone. Without even being aware that people were missing, ViCAP would not have been able to assist law enforcement for the simple reason that they would have seem no reason to use it.
The Dahmer case is unique in that a serial killer was operating relatively unnoticed.

He was able to stay under the radar and convince police that nothing was amiss. Because of this, it is difficult to say what kind of modern technology would have helped to identify Dahmer as a serial killer before such a body count mounted up. Had police noticed that numerous young men were missing, ViCAP may have enabled them to identify a pattern and make an arrest sooner. However, it would seem that revised police procedures would have been the best tool for officers to use in order to catch Dahmer. Had officers responded differently, he may have been arrested for murder when he killed his first victim in Ohio. Dahmer would likely have never even had the chance to kill an additional 16 men, and a serial killer would have been stopped before he had a chance to

start.
Due to these oversights by the officers who encountered Dahmer, police departments have taken steps to ensure their officers respond promptly and properly to all calls they receive. This is especially true for the Milwaukee Police Department. In light of the racist and homophobic accusations by the community, departments are also making certain that their officers are trained how to react in the face of racial and other societal tensions so that they can better understand how their decisions and preconceptions affect their jobs. Other departments have put in place community programs that are designed to encourage communication and cooperation between law enforcement and the general public.
To say the least, Dahmer’s actions shook the city of Milwaukee something fierce. Many believe it is “something that will take generations to heal, but for some people, it will never heal” (McGregor, 2005). Well there was little reason for a massive public reaction while he was at large, the aftermath made it clear that the city, friends and family of the victims, and Dahmer’s own family were left reeling. A public auction was planned for Dahmer’s estate, which brought much controversy to the point that a business group raised funds to buy everything Dahmer ever owned and then destroy it all (Dahmer belongings destroyed, 1996). Candlelight vigils were held in hopes of helping the city to heal. The apartment complex where Dahmer lived and murdered 12 people was demolished and remains a vacant lot. His mother attempted suicide at least once, and his father wrote a book to donate proceeds to the victims’ families. Steven Hicks’s family sued his parents and stepmother for wrongful death, claiming parental negligence. His younger brother David changed his last name and wants to stay out of the spotlight (Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, n.d.). After a fellow inmate killed Dahmer in prison, many felt relief that he was gone and that it was over.
Based on information regarding the case, I stand by the three-part typology previously identified to describe his motivation as well as his methods. Dahmer would best be described as a power/control, local, organized serial killer. By his own admission, he sought total control over his victims, and the way he killed them supports that idea. With the exception of his first victim, he always stayed in one general area to locate his victims, and he went about it in an intelligent, organized way. His methods included a carefully constructed routine that would minimize the chances of being caught, and he perfected that ritual to the point where police could even be on the premises and not suspect a thing.