Theories and Criminal Behavior

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1 Theories and Criminal Behavior – Jeffery Dahmer Kelly Yarbrough Southern New Hampshire University CJ 340 Criminology Project Three Submission Professor Dowd October 17, 2023

2 Between to years of 1978 and 1991, 17 murders took place between Bath township, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Many of his victims were African American men but he also killed Latino and Asian men. His victims ranged in age from 14-33 and most were of low economic status. Jeffery Dahmer was born on May 21, 1960, to Lionel and Joyce Dahmer (Jentzen, 2017). Until the age of 4, Jeffery was described as a happy, energetic boy but then his mood shifted. He had double hernia surgery, and it was a traumatic experience for him that was filled with pain. After this experience he became withdrawn and after the birth of his brother, he became worse. As a child, Jeffery was fascinated with small animal skulls and internal organs. He would also bring home roadkill to dissect. Dahmer’s parents would constantly fight, which drew tension and emotional detachment. He claimed at the age of 14 is when his urge to drink, necrophilia, and murder began (McEvoy, 2023). Dahmer’s first victim was Steven Hicks. Hicks was an 18-year-old hitchhiker who Dahmer picked up. He took Hicks back to his parent’s house, killed him, had sex with the dead body, cut him up into pieces, and put him in a garbage bag. As he was taking the body to dump somewhere, he was pulled over by the police and as they shined a flashlight in the back seat, they saw the bag. Dahmer was asked what was in the bag and he said garbage that he was taking to the dump. The officers wrote him a ticket and let him go. Dahmer was so scared by this that he did not kill again for 10 years. Steven Hicks was the only white man that he killed, all the rest were of a different race. Dahmer says that he was unaware that he killed his second victim because he blacked out FBI, 2014). His parents divorce and his double hernia operation is said to have contributed to his criminal conduct. He would frequent gay bars, malls, and bus stops, pick his victim, and would lure them with sex, money, drugs, and alcohol. He would bring them

3 home and give them alcohol with crushed sleeping pills in it to render them unconscious. He would then assault, torture, and murder his victims by strangulation. When tracing back to where Jeffry Dahmer’s psychosis began, it led to neglect and emotional abuse as a child by his parents. The birth of his younger brother also made him become disassociated. This led to a life of alcoholism, dropping out of college, and being discharged from the Army. There is no doubt these traumas contributed to his psychopathy. The correlation between culture and criminal behavior in cultural practices is the point of many criminological theories such as culture conflict theory and subcultural theories (Seidler, 2011). These theories saw crime as a collective behavior resulting from adherence to a subculture group, different from the dominant one (Adler, 2021). When Dahmer was in Germany, his roommate complained about his drinking behavior (McEvoy, 2023). Fellow soldiers also complained that when he was not drinking, he was normal, but as soon as he started to get drunk, he became dangerous. This is when he began to majorly shift his behavior. Some cultures agree that men cannot be abused by other men. In certain societies, criminal activity is viewed differently by victim shaming. In many cultures, it is believed that men cannot mistreat other men. According* to geographic location and culture, illegal activity may have different laws that support it. In the United States, murder is a capital offense. Free choice and knowledge have a more significant effect on criminal behavior. Criminals are aware that they are committing a crime and do not care about the repercussions, but they still make the choice to commit the crime. Serial killers and their motivation to murder is why criminological viewpoints are one of the key reasons for their existence. In the case of Jeffery Dahmer, it is a compelling illustration. When we use theory to explain criminal conduct, we benefit from the knowledge of the behavior

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4 and the ability to decide if the insanity excuse applies in court. Using the insanity plea will also make the difference between guilty and not guilty. The more we understand criminal behavior, the more we can learn how to possibly prevent criminal activity. A question that comes to mind is how Jeffery Dahmer chose his victims and why did he murder them. If we can begin to understand this, I will help us identify rehabilitative and preventative measures. This is why it is important not to make broad generalizations because it normally leads to misdiagnosis and the release of someone who may need greater care. When the social control theory is looked at in this case, Jeffery Dahmer did not have positive relationships with his parents, did not seem to have many friends, and was not social. This theory does not work in this case. Dahmer displayed symptoms of interpersonal anxiety and detachment from his friends and family. He was frustrated with his sexual immaturity and constant rejection. He expressed his hostility into a sadistic sexual behavior characteristic of a psychopath (Seidler, 2011). Dahmer showed signs of destructive behavior and psychopathy, showing his fetishistic and mixed hostility towards his victims (Seidler, 2011). It is possible that when his brother was born, he was jealous of the attention his brother was receiving. When we take into consideration the classical school of thought in criminology it explains crime as a free-will decision to make a criminal choice. This choice is made by applying the pain-pleasure principle. People act in ways that maximize pleasure and minimize pain. In this case, this holds true. Jeffery knew what he was doing to these victims, and he also knew the consequences. His strategies were well planned out and always had an excuse if something went wrong. There were plenty of times that he could have been caught but was smart enough to know how to get out of it. Dahmer’s killing spree may have lasted over many years if these

5 hypotheses were not constructed. Could Dahmer have been rehabilitated? We will never know. As people in the criminal justice professions, we can strive to prevent these horrors in the future. REFERENCES Adler, F. (2021). Criminology (10 th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781264169658 FBI. (2014). Serial Killers. Part 7: The FBI and Jeffery Dahmer https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/serial-killers-part-7-jeffery-dahmer Jentzen, J. M. (2017). Micro Disasters: The case of Serial Killer Jeffery Dahmer. Academic forensic pathology, 7(3), 444-452. https://doi.org/10.23907/2017.037 McEvoy, C. (2023). Jeffery Dahmer: Biography.com https://biography.com/crime/jeffery- dahmer Seidler, D.K. (2011). Dr. Katie Seidler MAPS, clinical and forensic psychologist, LSC Psychology, APS. https://www.psychology.org.au/what-can-culture-add-understanding- criminal-violence

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