Case Study of Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer is arguably the most notorious serial killer-cannibal in history. Hence, this paper will discuss the psychological history on Dahmer’s criminal behaviors and acts of why he did what he did. Also, this article will discuss the psychological, behavioral, environmental, and the cognitive factors of this case study. As well as, this paper will discuss the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic view, the behaviorist/social learning theory, and the cognitive/social cognitive theory, to the humanist and interactionist theories, of Dahmer’s criminality. Thus, describing the typology of the crime, of what personality defects did the offender have, how it played a role in his behavior, and which laws were protecting …show more content…
Was he competent to stand in his trial? Were there any ethical issues in Dahmer’s evaluation and treatment of competence to stand in his trial? Were there any ethical issues surrounding in Dahmer’s case? Lastly, this article will discuss the outcome of this case study. Jeffrey Dahmer was a thirty-one-years old man, who was arrested for the murder, dismemberment, and cannibalization of seventeen men. Hence, most of his murders had took place during fourteen- month period between May of nineteen ninety until of July of nineteen ninety-one. “Jeffrey was diagnosed as having paraphilia, along with mixed personality disorders. He had mixed personality disorders such as: sadistic, obsessive, fetishes, and antisocial features” (Fulero & Wrightman, 2008: G.B. Palermo, 2004). Hence, Dahmer’s childhood was described as him being an unhappy, shy and solitary child. It is reported that Jeffery’s mother was sick during her pregnancy. Also, that his mother was …show more content…
He came greatly aloof and at 14 he began to drink to cope with the despair over his lack of contact with his peers and to quell his compulsive, violent, sexual thoughts. Hence, in his early teens, he would become attracted to other boys and had kissed and fondled a boy at the age of fourteen. Thus, as a late teenager, Dahmer would drink alcohol and smoke weed, which led him to becoming overweight. Hence, no one had noticed Jeffrey’s loneliness, which he began to drink more, which resulted him to become more depressed. Jeffrey’s first kill was boy he picked up on the side of the road, in hopes of having sex with him. However, the boy refused and Jeffrey killed him because of being rejected and feeling he was being abandoned by his victim. In all, Dahmer confessed of murdering seventeen victims by seducing and drugging them. Following his murders, he would then have anal sex, or oral sex with them. He would drill holes in their heads and then inject them with muriatic acid into them to liquify their brain matter and when it failed, he would murder them. Hence, he would also, dissect and preserve his victim’s skulls and would keep them as trophies. He had also engaged in cannibalism. Jeffrey had longed for companionship and was driven to kill for it and for sex. He feared abandonment from his victims and killed for lust. In the duration of his arrest, Dahmer was assessed by seven different experts.