Jeffrey Dahmer the Criminal Delinquency Term Paper

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Jeffrey Dahmer- The Criminal Delinquency

Jeffrey Dahmer was born on 21st May 1960. He was a known serial killer, rapist and engaged in a myriad of other crimes. Dahmer killed 17 males between 1978 and 1991. He also meted out a range of heinous acts on his victims, including dismembering, raping, cannibalizing and necrophilia. Dahmer was beaten and killed by an inmate in a correctional institution at Colombia. This paper looks at his childhood, adult life, the cause of his involvement in crime and the psychological theories that explain the life of such a criminal and serial killer.

His Childhood

Dahmer was a normal child by account of upbringing and birth. He started changing as he grew older. He became uncommunicative and withdrawn. Between the ages of 10 to 15, Dahmer did not show any interest in social activities or even hobbies. However, he developed a queer interest in dead animals. He began drinking heavily in high school. The problem only grew bigger in his senior classes and beyond. He was enlisted in the military as a result of his father's influence, but he was later fired from the discipline, owing to the same old problem of alcoholism. His childhood years seem to have had an impact on his later life. His mother is reported to have suffered from mental illness.

The difficult relationship between his parents and the neglect after his younger sibling David was born at the age of five (Martens, 2005, p. 300) seem to have affected him psychologically. He was operated on twice for hernia. These surgeries also seem to have traumatized him. He does not seem to have recovered from these experiences. He turned from the outgoing character he had been to a dull fellow that lacked confidence as a result. He moved places thrice before he reached 8 years. This seems to have had an impact on his social relationships and was consequently shunned by his peers as an odd and bizarre child (Martens, 2005). He began to show some early characteristics at the age of 10. He became more withdrawn and lacked communication desire and skills until he was 15 years (Dahmer, 1994). He engaged in heavy drinking at the age of 13 (Dahmer J., n.d.). He is reported to have been drunk during his graduation from high school.

Early Adulthood

When Dahmer later moved to Florida, he spent most of his time in hospital. He was also kicked out of the facilities for his heavy drinking habits. He became even stranger when he moved into his grandmother's place to live there. She discovered an array of strange items and stuff in her home. She once found a 3 magnum under his bed and even a male mannequin in the closet that was used by his grandson Dahmer. He was still preoccupied with his fascination with dead animals.

He loved to cut open squirrels in the basement and proceeding to dissolve them in chemicals. He was arrested by the authorities in 1982 and 1986 for the crime of indecent exposure. His was asked to move out by his grandmother in 1988 summer; owing to his peculiar behavior. He moved to an apartment that was situated close to his work place at the Ambrosia Chocolate Factory. A day after he moved into the apartment, he was nabbed for drugging and fondling a 13-year-old sexually. He was sentenced for five years. He was also required to register as a sex offender. He got off the sentence two months to the term at work release camp and moved to another apartment. A string of murders ensued after he moved and was finally captured in 1991 (Crime Museum, 2015).

At 17 years, Dahmer was fascinated with violent necrophilia and other sexual fantasies that were laced with a marked lustful control of others. This was brought on by emotional and social frustrations and even loneliness" (Martens, 2005: 300). His emotions were aggravated after he was reported to have stolen a shop window dummy. He would recline in his bed with the dummy when his parents were away. In the process, he discovered his homosexual tendencies and fantasies. His parents divorced a year down the line. His mother and younger brother moved out of the home. The turn of events did not help his situation. His alcoholism and depression grew worse. He became emotionally blank in the course of trying to subdue loneliness and isolation (Jamet, 2012).

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He first murdered someone when he was only 18 in 1978. He picked a hitch hiker named Stevens whom he promised to take home to his father's for some beer. When Hitch was leaving, Dahmer hit him in the back of the head with a weighty dumbbell. He buried Hicks in the backyard and confessed killing him since he was opposed to the ideal of his leaving. Steven Tuomi was to be killed 9 years down the line. He was murdered in September of 1987 (Crime Museum, 2015).

He was picked by Dahmer from a bar and got killed at Dahmer's whims and impulse. He said that he didn't remember killing Steven. He killed two people in 1988 and another in 1989. He picked his victims from bars, took them home, had sex and killed them. He had even kept the skull of one (Antony Sears) of the people he had murdered. He moved out of his granny's home for the second time and killed four more people in the apartment he took between 1990 and 1991 (Crime Museum, 2015).

He took home a vile of blood from Milwaukee Blood Center (where he used to work), which he, later, drank, but never did it again (Dahmer J., n.d.). He sometimes ate the body parts of his victims (Turvey, 2010, p. 118). These were ritualistic acts that apparently assisted him to commemorate and preserve his victims' presence and keep them forever (Suberize, 2011).

A criminal psychopath's behavior has been described as dominant and manipulative. They have been said to be impulsive risk takers and pursuant of an antisocial way of life (Porter, et al., 2000, p. 220). They are thrilled by chasing a wide range of sexual gratification. Dahmer is brutal and sadistic and is triggered into these conditions by alcohol intake. It is a known trigger for criminal psychopaths.

A 14-year-old boy was found wandering the streets while drunk and drugged and confused. His name was Konerak Sinthasomphone. The women that got him called the emergency number. Dahmer pursued the victim and claimed that he was his lover and was aged 19. The police failed to do a sex offence background check or running an age test and handed the boy back to Dahmer. The victim was killed on the night of his release.

Dahmer dismembered him and preserved his skull as a souvenir. By summer, in 1991, Dahmer started killing at least one person each week. He fantasized that he would turn his murdered victims into zombies so that he would be having endless sexual encounters with them as youthful and submissive partners. He employed all manner of queer techniques to kill his victims. He injected hydrochloric acid and even hot water into their skulls after drilling holes in them. The residents of Oxford apartments noticed the evil smell that came from Dahmer's apartment.

They also noticed loud noises that sounded like they came from falling objects. Serial killers tend to pursue people from a single racial background. However, Dahmer was different because he killed people from across the racial spectrum. Dahmer is reported to have tried to entice Tracy Edwards to his home on the day of his arrest. Tracy was compelled into the bedroom with a knife while at Dahmer's place. Edwards escaped and ran to the streets during the struggle that ensued. He stopped a police vehicle. He took them to Dahmer's home and informed them of the knife Dahmer kept in his bedroom. Once they entered the bedroom, the police noticed pictures of dead bodies and dismembered parts. They arrested Dahmer.

When the police probed further, they discovered a severed head kept in the fridge; three heads kept in the apartment, more human remains in several places plus a number of photographs of such spooky items. It was assumed that Dahmer practiced cannibalism and necrophilia. Seven skulls were discovered in Dahmer's apartment. In addition, there was a human heart kept in the freezer. There was an altar and array of human skulls, and candles kept in a closet close by (Crime Museum, 2015).

Causes of Crime

There were necrophilia impulses right from Dahmer's childhood. He fetched dead animals and impaled the heads of the ones he killed on stakes in the yard. Dahmer was abandoned by his mother, molested by a neighbor; Dahmer went through an experience of loss and rejection. He was again.....

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