Jeffery Dahmer

In Inside a Murdering Mind by Anne E. Schwartz, Schwartz tells the story of a man named Jeffery Dahmer. Jeffery Dahmer was a seemingly normal man who live in Milwaukee, however, as the story goes, Dahmer was far from normal. In reality, he was a serial killer who would kill for the purpose of having sex with the corpse of his victims then he would occasionally, eat their flesh. In this critical essay, Anne E, Schwartz discusses a handful of possible reason for Jeffery Dahmer’s awful crimes and how we as society see these actions. Schwartz begins with mentioning that in the Jeffery Dahmer case, and many other cases in the past, society sought a scapegoat. In the Dahmer case, society blamed the parents and even law enforcement after finding out that Dahmer essentially slipped through the cracks, they tried to pin Dahmer’s deeds on others. She supports this idea when she uses anecdotal evidence and writes, “As I watched the Dahmer case unfold in Milwaukee, I saw our focus shift from the actual killer to a scapegoat for his deeds” (Schwartz, 294). Her idea that society likes to blame the parents is also backed by Dr. James Alan Fox who says that “Ever since Sigmund Freud , we blame everything bad that kids do on their parents, and that’s unfortunate and it doesn’t make sense” (Schwartz 294). So Schwartz …show more content…
Jeffery Dahmer was a homosexual, and because of this, Schwartz suggests that he may have projected his self-hatred onto his victims. She quotes Dr. Fox again who says that “If he at all feels uncomfortable about his own sexual orientation, it is very easy to see it projected into these victims and punishing them directly to punish himself” (Schwartz 296). This is an excellent theory on why Dahmer may have committing those