Jeffrey Dahmer: Six Characteristics Of A Serial Killer

Out of the six characteristics of a serial offender, enuresis, animal torture, fire setting, pathological lying, chronic daydreaming, and violent fantasies, Dahmer exhibited at least two. Those two were animal torture and violent fantasies. Youngstrom states, “Professionals agree that animal torture is a childhood activity that strongly correlates with psychopathic sadistic offending” (1991, pg. 32). Dahmer became extremely interested in dead animals at an early age. His curiosity was primarily based around the insides of the animals. Before burying or disposing of the dead animals Dahmer would dissect and skin them (Davis, 1998, pg. 30). Neighbors would later recall that Dahmer began experimenting on insects, keeping their preserved bodies

in jars of chemicals, but later moved on to larger roadkill and prey (Davis, 1998, pg. 31). It is likely that Dahmer also tortured and killed many animals (Davis, 1998; Youngstrom, 1991). Although, there has been no witnesses to such acts of torture, or any admission of such by Dahmer himself. There may have been a genetic basis for Dahmer’s psychotic behavior based on his father, Lionel Dahmer, claiming his wife to had been suffering from severe mental illness the during custody battle in their divorce.
During interviews televised on NBC, News Productions, Dateline (1994), Stone Phillips talks with Jeffery Dahmer, his father Lionel Dahmer, step-mother Shari Dahmer, and separately at a different time to his mother Joyce Dahmer. His mother was institutionalized for anxiety during Jeffery’s childhood, according to his father. His parent’s relationship began to deteriorate and loud arguments were witnessed often by Jeffrey. He would fill with aggression from experiencing these hostile arguments and run outside into the woods where he beat on trees to release his anger. In high school he would drink alcohol on the way to school, and while at school. He became the class clown, performing outrageous acts for money from other classmates. The older he got the more of an outcast Dahmer became, along with a severe problem of alcoholism.
In the summer of 1978 Dahmer graduated from high school.

His father had moved out of the family home and into a hotel upon their separation. Dahmer's father was unaware that his ex-wife had moved out also, taking their younger son David with her to Wisconsin. She left Jeffrey to live there alone. Upon gaining this knowledge Jeffrey's father moved back into the house with him. However, before this time and shortly after high school graduation Jeffrey, having been isolated and left alone, had the time to fantasize how he would go about killing his first victim.
Dahmer’s father tried to help him by signing him up for college, convincing him to join the Army, but he dropped out of school and was discharged early from the Army due to his alcohol problem and behavior. He went directly to Miami Beach after being discharged without telling anyone. While there his drinking was extreme, until he had no money, nowhere to stay, and had been sleeping on the beach for the majority of the time he had been in Miami. He called his father for money; however, his father told him he would not send him money though he would send him a bus ticket to come

home.
Dahmer would drug his victims rendering them unconscious, at which point he would be the one in control and they could not leave him. Tracy Edwards was Dahmer's last attempt to kill. Edwards escaped Dahmer's apartment and ran to notify the police. During Edwards’s captivity by Dahmer he states in testimony that Dahmer would "go out of himself and change". It was the onset of one of these episodes that allowed Edwards the opportunity to hit Dahmer and bolt out the door.
Fantasies become predominant for an adolescent who is a loner or shunned by their peers. These fantasies become real and more powerful and criminal. The fantasies become hostile in nature and cross over to sexual fantasies where they converge and become vile. Dahmer stated himself that he didn't understand why he had these thoughts and that he did not have any control over them. In his interview with Stone Phillips, "Confessions of a serial killer", Dahmer states, "After the first time there was no stopping". He went on to state that the second murder took place in 1984. He claims that when he woke up in the morning you woke to the body of his second victim and he had no memory of it at all. He claimed that the second murder was not planned. He wanted to keep his victims with him permanently and he began eating parts of his victims’ bodies to somehow keep them a part of him. The killing and dismemberment was a means to an end. The need was to make them stay with him. That he could control and lust over his victim and they would not leave him. That was why he attempted to make them a zombie, in an effort to keep them with him; he could not bear to be left alone.
Dahmer had episodes of feeling abandoned as a child. Tension in the home created unhappiness and depression in the home. To escape the tension within his environment he would go into his own fantasy world. A world where he had control.
Lionel Dahmer admitted to having dreams himself that were about killing people.

Showing a possibility of Dahmer’s mental illness having a biological connection. Dahmer's mother had taken a medication during pregnancy with Jeffrey that has been mentioned as a possible contributing factor. He witnessed extreme tension between his parents in his home environment this also could have played a part.
Creation science is what made Dahmer realize that the theory of evolution, which he had been a believer of, was a complete lie. Whereby, believing and accepting Jesus as his Savior made him take accountability for what he did. Both Jeffrey and his father argue that the break in practicing faith contributed to Jeffrey's killing spree. When they moved from Milwaukee to Ohio he showed signs of being an introvert. His father states how he tried to help him fit in with peers through joining different

activities.
His mother states that being sociable was not his thing. He was shy and felt out of control. His father had obsessions himself as an adolescent. He was harassed by bullies. He admits that having had dreams about killing he feels that those dreams became a reality for his son. In addition, the common thought leads to consider a biological aspect to Dahmer’s antisocial personality. Some might say that the combination of different issues, or episodes, that Jeffrey Dahmer experienced during crucial developmental stages definitely created a serial killer. This writer would add biological connections as well to the list based on Lionel Dahmer's admission of his own unconscious dreams about killing people.
In light of the human remains that were found in Dahmer’s apartment upon his final arrest no real investigation needed to be carried out to prove that he was guilty. Dahmer himself admitted to the murders, including others being committed by him that law enforcement had been unaware of having happened. Dahmer gave pinpoint accounts of each of the killings that he had committed. The question did not ponder on whether he was guilty; the question became one of insanity. The concentration in Dahmer’s trial was proving whether he was legally insane, or not. Jeffery Dahmer pleads not guilty by reason of insanity. The opinions of each psychological expert were given with a measure of difference to each testimony. The prosecutions witnesses stating conclusively by their own measure that Dahmer had the ability to realize his actions enough to premeditate them. The defenses witnesses on the other hand did not conclusively determine that Dahmer was not insane.