Jeffrey Dahmer: A Serial Killer

In the most recent decades, murder rates have dropped by over fifty percent in the United States; however, prior to this decrease, there was an increase in murders during the late twentieth century, in result of the emergence of serial killers. Hickey stated, “As a result of the case of Jeffrey Dahmer and others, serial murder began to be explored not merely as an act, but as a process (2015, p. 7). Dahmer has become known as one of the most notorious and prolific serial murderers of modern day. Dahmer was convicted and sentenced to serve fifteen consecutive life terms, for murdering seventeen young men and boys between 1978 to 1991. These murders were especially heinous, as his acts also involved dismemberment, cannibalism, and necrophilia.

The pregnancy had not been easy for Dahmer’s parents, as his mother, continued to battle against unceasing nausea, and had also faced a series of uncontrollable seizures. Dahmer stated, “During these strange seizures, here eyes would bulge like a frightened animal, and she would begin to salivate, literally frothing from the mouth” (1994, p. 34). In order to alleviate her symptoms the doctor gave Joyce injections of morphine and barbiturates, which subsequently would be considered a possible contributing factor to Jeffrey’s behavior in the future. Before and after Jeffrey’s birth, Lionel and Joyce Dahmer argued frequently, sometimes even physically with a knife, often leaving Lionel Dahmer feeling helpless in how to resolve their situations; therefore stating, “I couldn’t understand where her fears and rages came from, and so I often avoided her, fleeing to my laboratory, where things were considerably less volatile, and where all reactions could be systematically controlled” (1994, p. 41). Through the early years of Jeffrey’s life, the Dahmer’s had relocated for his father’s work on numerous occasions, which resulted in Jeffrey to be raised by his mother at home, to where she was isolated, and his father spending a majority of his day in his

During Jeffrey’s recovery period, Dahmer noted, “He seemed smaller, somehow more vulnerable, perhaps even sadder than at any time before” (1992, p. 59). Jeff had displayed symptoms of alienation after the birth of his brother, as his teachers and father even noticed a difference within his personality. Dahmer observed that, “The little boy who’d once seemed so happy and self assured had disappeared. He had been replaced by someone else, a different person, now deeply shy, distant, nearly uncommunicative” (1994, p. 62). Jeff’s first grade teacher even had the impression that Jeff had an profound unhappiness about him, felt neglected by his parents, and noticed how he often kept to himself on the playground. Before moving to Barberton, Ohio, Jeffrey at the age of seven, he also witnessed his mother go into an acute depression, resulting in her being admitted into a psychiatric ward to help cope with her severe