Jeffery Dahmer: The Spotting Serial Killer

Jeffery Dahmer terrorized the city of Milwaukee, WI for many years during the late nineteen eighties and early part of the nineties. His murders were among some of the most perverse and brutal nature of their kind. A question looms as to what could have caused Jeffery Dahmer to commit such unspeakable crimes as he had, and that spanned over more than a decade. Is genetics responsible or partly at least, or was it caused by a dysfunctional family environment that traumatized a young Jeffery during his childhood development? This paper will attempt to provide a summary of the horrific murders that Jeffery Dahmer committed; through a brief description of his offenses, an account of the psychological path for which Dahmer followed to commit the …show more content…
Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is described as behaviors establishing a pattern that shows disregard for others rights and violation of those rights. This behavior generally begins in childhood displayed by conflicts in life that include family problems with relationship building, school problems, as they age problems at work, peer and personal relationship problems also exist. According to DeLisi in the book titled, Criminal Psychology, “High impulsivity, low gratification delay, high aggression, high risk taking, and high narcissism are associated with serious antisocial behavior in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood”, (DeLisi, 2013, Ch. 4). Dahmer exhibited each of these antisocial behaviors. Serial killers murder at least three people in separate incidents, with the mental disposition or predisposition to kill again. They wind down between incidents, choose the method for the next killing, and either move around or lure victims to a single location. They view victims as objects to satisfy their goals of killing. Generally serial murders have a sexual tone to …show more content…
In the journal article titled, Severe personality disorder emerging in childhood: a proposal for a new developmental disorder, Journal of Criminal Behavior and Mental Health, the authors state that, “Young children that are within the antisocial personality disorder tend to be overactive, disruptive, oppositional and impulsive, with marked difficulties in peer relationships and seeking out high excitement” (Vizard, French, Hickeu, & Bladon, 2004, pg. 21). The article goes on to state that as the child reaches middle childhood they will generally show literacy problems, drug abuse, and exhibiting feelings of depression more so than their peers. As adulthood is reached behavior includes heavy drinking, problems staying employed, money problems, an inability to deal with difficult situations and displayed use of