Jeffrey Dahmer

I have heard about jeffrey dahmer in the past but this is the first time I have learned this much about him. The chapter tells about how he has been in and out of court rooms his whole life but no one knew the true story about he was. When he was arrested for the sexual abuse of anoukone he had already killed people and no one knew according to the reading. It's interesting to think what would have happened if he had been put in jail then. Since he already had a past of sexual abuse on his record and the bad alcohol problem. http://investigation.discovery.com/investigation/true-crime-stories/jeffrey-dahmer/jeffrey-dahmer.html This site tells a little more about when Dahmer was finally arrested for all his murders. There was the incident when Konerak excepted but then was brought back right back to Dahmer and was never seen again. this site tells more about that. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/index.h
It says that the police smelled something bad in the aparment but didn't investigate it because they didn't want to get involed "in the middle of a domestic argument between homosexual lovers" so if Konerak had been a female would the cops have investigated more and not taken Konerak back to the apartment.

To me it just fells like a lot more could have been done about Dahmer before he killed so many. The judge tmldecide not to listen to the psychologist about how Dahmer was and gave him a 5 year sentence instead of a of a 10 year one. It was little things that could have changed big events it seems to me.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/index.h

http://investigation.discovery.com/investigation/true-crime-stories/jeffrey-dahmer/jeffrey-dahmer.html

The name Jeffrey Dahmer sounded familiar to me, but I had completely forgotten what he was 'famous' for. After reading this chapter about him, it explained his criminal life he chose as a murderer and sexual abuser of teenagers and adult men. It explains how Dahmer got away with his cruel actions for awhile until finally getting caught with many diseased body parts in his living space along with proof of photos of sexually abusing his victims before and after killing them, as well as eating their body parts. There were continuous arguments about whether or not Dahmer should be filed as insane or not, which eventually lead to the knowledge of him being completely aware of his wrongdoings which caused him to gain 957 of years in prison. He only lasted two years until another inmate brutally killed him.

Some psychological aspects were explaining why Dahmer did the things he did as well as pleading insanity or not. It was found that Dahmer was highly intelligent and it was proven he knew how to communicate effectively after Konerak’s almost escape with the police, which Dahmer talked himself out of. On top of that, Dahmer was also consciously aware of what to do after killing his victims to cover up and hide what he had done. His given statement to the judge after being sentenced 957 years of prison proved he knew what he did was immoral.

I found this reading to be highly interesting as well as explaining Dahmer's case briefly but thoroughly. However, I did not agree with Dahmer being put in prison because although he was quite aware of what he was doing was wrong, he obviously needed some psychological help. I think through the descriptions given by professionals of him being able to communicate effectively, he would have strongly cooperated and hopefully improved with professional, mental help.

http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/dahmer.htm
This website provided a great insight to Dahmer's background that was not provided in detail in chapter 12. It explains as a child he was very happy until going through hernia surgery, becoming very shy after his move from his home state Wisconsin to Ohio where he also started skinning animals’ caucuses and keeping their bones, and developed a drinking problem in high school probably due to his parents divorce. He later went on to struggle with his homosexual orientation along with his necrophilia obsession (which probably caused him to kill his victims in the first place in order to reach his fantasy).

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/3.html
The first few pages of this article explain the missed opportunity that occurred of police men stopping Jeffrey Dahmer in his tracks. It explains how his victim Konerak Sinthasomphone escaped Dahmer’s apartment after being dosed heavily with some sort of ‘sleep drug’. He escaped completely naked and could barely talk normally, but knew he needed to survive and go with his instinct. Once outside, civilians turned the young boy into the police but Dahmer was there with them. Since Sinthasomphone could not speak for himself, Dahmer did all the talking which convinced the police they were lovers and just had an argument. While not wanting to get involved, little did the police know they had missed a decaying body in one of Dahmer’s apartment rooms along with him strangling and sexually abusing the young boy after they had left.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/29/us/jeffrey-dahmer-multiple-killer-is-bludgeoned-to-death-in-prison.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
This article really goes in depth with how Dahmer’s murderous career brutally ended in prison. It mentions, just as in chapter 12, that another inmate attacked Dahmer on a shift that they had been working together for about 3 weeks. They claimed that since Dahmer had such a high status for serial killers, that killing him would gain honor in prison life. I think that if this is a common fact about murderous inmates then when Dahmer was in court this should have been recognized as part of putting Dahmer in a mental institution rather than prison, but I guess he got what was coming to him anyways.

I was actually really surprised by the bluntness of this book when I first started reading this chapter. I really liked the fact that it was obviously not censored and I think knowing the truth of what actually happened to his victims brought the case to a more personal level and brought you into the case. The writing was something I really liked because it explained it as if it was actually happening now.
I think the whole case was very complex and I think that it contained a lot of different aspects of psychology that should be considered. First of all there was the glaring question of whether Dahmer was insane or was competent enough to make logical decisions. This aspect of Dahmer's psychological state was hotly debated throughout the reading by, it seemed like, many different psychologists.
Paraphilias were mentioned in the case by Dr. Park Dietz. I enjoyed his viewpoint of the most because he specifically mentioned that paraphilias were not the cause of violent behavior. I believe that this put an extra spin on the case because the other psychologists and lawyers involved could no longer logically state that the killings were due to his paraphilia.
I also thought that the point made by Dr. George Palermo was one with psychological significance. He stated that Dahmer was killing these people because he wanted to kill the source of his homosexual attraction. As if he had a force pushing on him to kill these people because they indirectly represented something that he was told was wrong. Palermo believed more on the social psychology side of things in that Dahmer’s environment and how society saw him had more to do with his killings then anything else. What I got from the reading was that Palermo believed that Dahmer was told to surpress his homosexual urges and because of that cognitive dissonance between what he wanted and what society said he could have, it caused him to become frustrated and kill.
I was kind of disappointed that the book didn't have more to say about what Dahmer actually said when he was being accused of wanting to be closer to his victims while eating them or while people were questioning his sanity. It would have been a completely different perspective if they had added what Dahmer had stated during the case or if he actually said anything at all.
The first link that I found was one that talked extensively about Dahmer’s history and childhood. Now I can’t guarentee the validity of this site because the post I read from seemed to be written by a blogger but I found it very informative when talking about Dahmer’s childhood. It painted a darker picture of what Dahmer experienced when growing up then the book did. It did seem to favor the psychoanalytic psychology aspect over the clinical/mental illness aspect of this case. The author seemed to be suggesting that Dahmer’s tendency to kill and dismember his victims was due to past experiences and the fact that he may still be dealing with greif caused by sexual molestation and his parents divorce when he was young. This link was different then the book and provided more indepth knowledge on Dahmer’s history which I found to be extremely useful when considering all aspects of his case.
The second link I found is one that lists all or parts of the testimonies given by the psychologists that were involved in the trial itself. It was a pretty in-depth look into what the psychologists thought and whose side they were on. It is my understanding that all of the psychologists involved obviously thought that there was something wrong with the actions that Dahmer exhibited but there seemed to be the main question of whether it was Dahmer’s fault or if he was influenced by either his childhood or a mental illness. There was a lot of stipulation about whether he was mentally ill or not. One of the lawyers for the prosecution even admitted that Dahmer had a mental illness but there simply wasn’t a classification for it and continued to list off why he didn’t have any of the listed mental illnesses and stuck to his claim that Dahmer was not insane.
The third and final link that I found was one that kind of did an overview of different recollections of Dahmer’s confession. This case was not a question of whether he was guilty of the acts committed it was a question of whether he was responsible or not or if he was in the correct state of mind to be able to sanely chose to do the things he had done. In the first part of his confession, and in my opinion the most important part Dahmer admits that he was consciously aware of all the things that he was doing to his victims while they were happening. He was aware that they were wrong and that he shouldn’t be doing them and he admitted that he had remorse and that he wanted to help the police in anyway possible for the victims. The fact that he was able to recognize that what he was doing was wrong and have remorse for it shows that he is not antisocial and that in my opinion he was not insane.

http://socyberty.com/crime/jeffrey-dahmer-the-truth/3/
http://www.criminalprofiling.com/Psychiatric-Testimony-of-Jeffrey-Dahmer_s115.html
http://www.tornadohills.com/dahmer/confess.htm

Terms: psychology, insane, competent, parphilia, social psychology, cognitive dissonance, sanity, validity, psychoanalytic, clinical/mental illness, conscious, antisocial

I believe this was the first time I have ever heard about Jeffrey Dahmer and I feel seriously sick to my stomach. Jeffrey Dahmer was a male who grow up in a "normal" middle class household. He was known as the class clown in school and in his early teenage years found himself being attractive to the same sex. He committed murder for the first time when he was seventeen years old. During his adulthood he would often go to gay bars and pick up males who would pose naked for him. Dahmer would drug them with multiple sleeping pills and later kill them and eat the remains. He would keep what he didn't eat. My opinion is that he would keep the bones and skulls for a souvenier. He ended up in court for raping a young boy named Anoukone Sinthasomphone. The judge in that case basically let Dahmer off with a little slap on the hand. He continued to rape and murder many others until one night one of Dahmer's victims (Tracy Edwards) got violent with him and punched and kicked him and got out of Dahmer's apartment. Edwards got ahold of the police and they started an investigation. The police searched Dahmer's apartment and found many body parts of dead bodies and closets full of pornography from his victims. That was the end of it for Dahmer. He was charged with murder and admitted to killing seventeen men.

During the hearing many pscyhologists and psychiatricts completed many psychological tests, evaulated and testified for and against Dahmer. A few of them thought that he was insane at the time of the crime and others begged to differ.The psychiatrics came up with Dahmer having many conditions such as, necrophilia, paraphilias, pedopilia, exhibirtionism, and voyeurism. He was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to 957 years in person. It's so weird how karma works because Dahmer was brutually murdered by a mentally ill man just two years into his sentence.

I am very opinioned when it comes to rapes and murders. I do believe that some people have mental issues and can pled insanity. But when it comes to raping and killing up to almost twenty people that's a little obsessive. Maybe it makes me a bad person but when sometimes ADMITS to killing people I think they deserve the death penalty. I know that the death penalty has killed innocent people before but Jeffrey Dahmer admitted to killing them. I would say that Dahmer got pretty darn lucky in his lifetime with some seriously lazy law enforcement dealing with his crimes. The book said that no action was even taken in the disappearance of Konerak Sinthasomphone. That just baffles my mind! He got got pretty lucky in the case with Konerak's older brother. If that was my child I would be SO unhappy with Dahmer's sentence. I do believe that Jeffrey Dahmer was a impressive liar. He got himself out of a lot of situations but I do not believe he was insane. I would say that Dahmer had some serious mental health issues because having sexual intercourse with young boys is just wrong.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/index.html
This website is a more detailed story about the Konerake Sinthasomphone case. It really made me wonder why the police didn't take into account what the girls had to say. Infact, they were the ones who called the police. It's not normal for a so called "19" year old male to be running around naked. This really irriates me. If Konerake was so incoherent why would the officers let him go back with Dahmer? Dahmer must of been a pretty convincing person to lead the officers to believe Konerake was 19.

http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/d/Jeffrey%20Dahmer/jeffrey_dahmer.htm
On this website there is an interesting story told my another inmate that was in prison the same time Dahmer got murdered. He gave his perspective on the whole time. Sort of a different look at the case.

http://www.biography.com/people/jeffrey-dahmer-9264755
In my final website there is a short video to go along with the article. This article is about his life, victims and sentencing. It reminds of a lot of the chapter we read in "Minds On Trial."

Terms: insanity, mental illness,psychological tests, necrophilia, paraphilia, pedophilia, voyeurism

Jeffery Dahmer, from a young age, showed signs of his eventual serial killer tendencies. Dahmer as a child was isolated, antisocial and had an interest in causing animals pain. Over the years, Dahmer began to suffer from alcohol abuse and his isolatation from others became more prevalent. Before Dahmer was eventually detained for all his crimes he had several run-ins with the law, including his arrest for sexually molesting Anouke Sinthasomphone and being charged for indecent exposure in front of children. Jeffery Dahmer was eventually arrested because his victim, Tracy Edwards, was able to escape and told the police everything that had happened to him. When the police asked Dahmer if they could search his home he politely accepted their request. The two officers found several body parts, nude pictures, and pictures of dismembered bodies. Dahmer would later tell police that in some cases he would cook and eat the body parts as well. Jeffery Dahmer murdered and dismembered 15 young boys and men from 1978 to 1991. Dahmer was sentenced to 957 years in prison. Dahmer’s psychological status has never really been clear. A major debate between psychologist occurred about his sanity and whether knew what he was doing at the time of the murders. It was eventually determined that he knew his actions were wrong and could plead insane or if he was in right mind. He has been described as a necrophile, sadist, cannibal, pedophile and borderline psychopath. Dahmer’s intellect, charisma, and MO are what make him one of the most infamous criminals in our nation’s history.

I really enjoyed reading this chapter about the case. I have always found Jeffery Dahmer’s case to be intriguing due to its unusual aspects for example, cannibalism. This text does a really good job of giving details about the case that most do not know. Many people know Jeffery Dahmer as the cannibalistic serial killer; however, they do not know his background or that he did have a criminal record before finally getting arrested for all his crimes he committed. I also enjoy the fact that the text did not sugar coat the story, instead the authors gave gory details that bring the story to life and make it seem more real rather than fiction. I believe the authors did a good job giving an overview of Jeffery Dahmer’s case and his life overall.

http://www.criminal-psychology.net/site/?p=460
The first website that I chose does a good job of explaining Jeffery Dahmer’s childhood and what variables may have contributed to his actions. Jeffery Dahmer’s mother, Joyce, had problems during her pregnancy that led her to taking drugs that would help treat her illness. After Jeffery was born his mother started to refuse breast feeding him, and she began to show behaviors that were unstable. She increased her intake of antidepressant and psychotropic drugs. Although Jeffery was a happy child, he did fall ill several times causing him to have injections for the illness and eventually had a hernia surgery. Due to all the strain, Jeffery’s mother’s depression began to get worse and so did her consumption of antidepressants. Joyce eventually was sent to a neuropsychiatry hospital for one month, and in this time Jeffery felt as though he had caused his mother’s disease to worsen. Eventually Joyce’s condition became too much for Jeffery’s father and they got a divorce. I feel as though all of the hardships that Jeffery went through may have been variables that eventually led to his murderous actions. I also feel as though Joyce’s mental illness played a role in Jeffery’s early development that may have contributed to his mental illness. His illness could have come from either genetics or the strain of having to watch his mother suffer and feeling as though he caused it.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/3.html
The next website that I found does a good job of explaining all of the things that police missed when they found Konerak Sinthasomphone outside of the Oxford Apartments where Jeffery Dahmer lived. The first thing that is described that the police didn’t look into was the funny smell that they had noticed but never checked out. If the police officers had followed their intuition and went to determine the smell they would have found the decaying corpse on the bedroom floor. Also, when Dahmer showed them his I.D. during their questioning of him, they did not do a background check, in which they would have found that he was a well known child molester. Lastly, the police did not do a follow up to check to see if the boy was alright, even after a concerned neighbor phoned the police and FBI after seeing the boys picture in the newspaper that he was missing. If all of these mistakes had not been made, then several of Dahmer’s victims would have been spared and Konerak Sinthasomphone’s life would have been saved.

http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Jeffrey_Dahmer#Aftermath
The last website I found gives an overview of the aftermath of Jeffery Dahmer’s actions. It depicts how his family and his victim’s families are coping today and how his infamy has impacted the media as well. The Oxford apartments where Dahmer lived were torn down after the trial, a memorial garden was supposed to go in its place, however, there is still not one today. Dahmer’s father, Lionel, wrote a book about his son and their life and he sent the proceeds from the book to his son’s victims and their families. Lionel and his second wife kept the last name Dahmer; however, Jeffrey’s younger brother, David, changed his last name and lives in secrecy. Jeffery Dahmer not only impacted his family and his victim’s families he also had an effect on the media. His life has been documented in several movies, and his story has been told through many famous songs. Jeffery Dahmer’s rampage has had a lasting effect on our entire society.

Terms: serial killer, antisocial, psychologist, insane, necrophile, sadist, cannibal, pedophile, psychopath, antidepressants, psychotropic drug, depression, mental illness, corpse, victim

Jeffery Dahmer is widely known in the United States as a sex offender and murderer. As a child, Dahmer seemed to always have a niche for doing "abnormal things." For example, he would go in to the woods to kill and dissect animals. He would also bring them into his home to "chemically decompose" their bodies. Much of this similar behavior was seen in his crimes against humans. Dahmer began murdering at the age of eighteen and his killing spree lasted thirteen years, from 1978-1991. The police finally arrived on the scene at Dahmer's apartment after being lead there by an escaped victim. To their horror, they found pictures of dismembered bodies, barrels filled with chemicals, and human skulls in the refrigerator or freezer. He was then arrested and taken into custody.

After the trial on January 30, 1992 Dahmer was ruled sane, convicted of fifteen murders, and sentenced to fifteen life terms in prison. Dahmer began his killing spree at age eighteen where things took a turn for the worse. After that, he would murder someone almost every week. This all went on from 1978-1991.

http://www.biography.com/people/jeffrey-dahmer-9264755
This website was actually very good at explaining the facts about Jefferey Dahmer. Much of his early childhood and murders were explained in great detail. The website also comes with a video biography of Dahmer as well, which I think can be a good source of information as well.

http://investigation.discovery.com/criminals/serial-killers/jeffrey-dahmer-02.html
This second website that I found is not near as detailed as the first. However, it still does a decent job in explaining the basics of what happened. After looking at several websites, I have noticed some inconsistency among them. Some websites leave out quite a bit of facts while some are very detailed. This one seemed to leave out some facts that others might find important. They may find it important so that they can understand the details of Dahmer's life and trial in more depth.

Wow! My mind is blown! I have heard references to the Jeffrey Dahmer case many times throughout my life, but I never fully understood the sickening details of his case. The chapter on Jeffrey Dahmer in the “Minds on Trial” book, explained the harsh realities of this case.

The chapter talked of Jeffrey Dahmer’s enticement of males to play out his homosexual urges through forcing the men to pose in nude for photographs. Following the photographing, Jeffrey Dahmer would drug the men, kill them, have sexual intercourse with them post-mortem, and mutilate their bodies either to store away or to fry up as a meal. Also, the book adds surprising detail on the law enforcement side of this case about the investigation by the police or lack thereof which extremely disappoints me. The very fact that the police shrugged off the multiple suspicious reports from Dahmer’s neighbor makes me sick inside to think that maybe some of these killings could have been prevented. The chapter later goes on to talk about Jeffrey Dahmer’s trial and the numerous professional opinions of Jeffrey Dahmer’s mental state and competency to stand trial. It came out to be a unanimous decision by all professionals that examined Dahmer that he was competent to stand trial, that he was not legally insane due to obviously understanding right from wrong at the time of the killings, and that he would be found guilty in the court of law.

Overall, I think this chapter did a fantastic job of detailing the killings of Jeffrey Dahmer, explaining Dahmer’s trial process, as well as, including important details and facts about Jeffrey Dahmer himself to help the reader understand in full what kind of background Jeffrey Dahmer grew up in and what kind of person he really was.

I believe there were some very important facts about Jeffrey Dahmer that a person must understand in his case. For example, there are reports that Jeffrey Dahmer had been sexually abused by a neighbor at the age of eight. He also struggled with the realization that he was gay during a time that this realization would not be socially acceptable.

Also while reading this chapter, a trait about Jeffrey Dahmer that surprised me was that he did not uphold the killer’s stereotype of being a cold and heartless man. The statement that Jeffrey Dahmer made to the judge in court before the announcement of his sentencing shows that deep down he showed signs of being a polite and remorseful man.

The aspects of psychology that I believe are relevant to this case are the cognitive, clinical, social, and perception elements of psychology. I believe the cognitive element of psychology is relevant to this case, because Jeffrey Dahmer had to mentally manipulate events and actions in his mind to make them seem ok to carry out in the real world. I also believe the cognitive element of psychology comes into play when you think about how many killings that Jeffrey Dahmer successfully carried out and the length of time that he went without being arrested by dodging cops and concealing his evidence would require him to have some kind of higher cognitive ability to do what he did. I believe the clinical element of psychology comes into play when you consider Jeffrey Dahmer’s mental state. The various clinical illnesses that the examining psychologists and psychiatrists explained varying from personality disorders, paraphilias, and schizophrenia all deal with the clinical aspect of psychology. The social element of psychology is relevant to this case for the fact that Jeffrey Dahmer had to have some kind of social ability in order to influence and entice the men to engage in the pornography and sexual acts that Jeffrey Dahmer had them do. The final element that I find relevant to this case is perception. Jeffrey Dahmer talked of wanting to kill his victims in order to keep a close relationship with the victims and/or to create zombie-like figures that would stay with him to keep him company and not abandon him. It is clear that Jeffrey Dahmer’s perception of his actions are clearly different from what an average person would perceive.

http://www.biography.com/people/jeffrey-dahmer-9264755

This site is interesting in that it explains some of the misfortunes that Jeffrey Dahmer went through in the early stages of his life. The emotional rollercoaster that Jeffrey Dahmer experienced due to witnessing his parents’ marriage fall apart, uprooting his life to another community, and experiencing his parents’ divorce may have been stressors put on him that brought about the actions of putting his inner struggles into play.

http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/dahmer_2.htm

This site goes into further detail about the crimes that Jeffrey Dahmer committed, as well as, the interesting details of his life after being put in prison. The added information about the dispute between his parents as far as what to do with his body following his death was interesting.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/17.html

The article portion of this website was interesting to read in that it described a little more about Jeffrey Dahmer’s relationship with his father. This site also goes more into detail about the possible psychological underpinnings of Jeffrey Dahmer’s case.

Chapter 12 of Minds on Trial discussed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer killed seventeen men and boys during his lifetime. He killed his first victim when he was seventeen years old. Dahmer eventually fell into a pattern of hanging out near places he knew gay men tended to go to. Dahmer would offer the men money if they posed nude for him. Once they arrived at his apartment he would drug the men and kill them. In each case Dahmer would engage in necrophilia and cannibalistic behavior.

It is amazing how Dahmer had several run-ins with the law yet wasn’t caught for murder. Dahmer even was arrested and sentenced for sexually assaulting a thirteen-year-old boy. The next time Dahmer had a run-in with the law was after he had killed another dozen men. The final incident that finally bore some results ended tragically. Dahmer lured a young boy into his apartment and drugged him like usual. However, the boy came around and ran from the apartment. The boy contacted the police. Unfortunately, Dahmer was by the boy’s side by the time the police arrived. Neighbors mentioned how the boy was a minor. However, Dahmer told the police that the boy was his nineteen-year-old lover. Police took the boy back to Dahmer’s apartment where they were as an awful odor. However, police left the boy and Dahmer strangled him immediately after. A neighbor kept contacting the authorities but nothing came of it. It wasn’t until two months later that Dahmer was caught. A man escaped, contacted police, and the police looked around his apartment. Once the police looked around Dahmer was arrested. The apartment contained body parts in different forms.

This acts committed by Dahmer were horrific. However, does that mean he was insane? To determine if someone is insane it is key to determine whether or not the individual knew that what they were doing was wrong. Each of his killings did involve planning. Being able to plan something would imply competence. The book did mention that Dahmer struggled with alcohol abuse and that could imply incompetence. Dahmer had necrophilia, a type of paraphilia and is considered a mental illness in the DSM. However, one psychiatrist did say that most paraphiles do not criminally act on their paraphilia. Majority of the jury ended up voting that Dahmer was sane when he committed the murders. Dahmer even displayed his competence when he said “ I know my time in prison will be terrible, but I deserve whatever I get because of what I have done (pg. 151).” In that statement he admitted that he knew that what he did was deserving of negative consequences.

http://investigation.discovery.com/criminals/serial-killers/jeffrey-dahmer-02.html
The article above contained information regarding Dahmer’s background. In this article we learn about Dahmer growing up and how there may have been some indications of the man he was to become. In the article we learn that Dahmer preferred not to socialize with other kids his age. Dahmer would look for dead animals. Whenever he did he would cut it up. He also began drinking at a young age. The article states that Dahmer was an alcoholic before he graduated high school. Dahmer’s alcoholism resulted in his discharge from the Army and continued on throughout the rest of his life. The behaviors of excess drinking and cutting up deceased animals carried on and are directly related to his behaviors later. He cut up dead animals as a child and later cut up dead humans. He was an alcoholic before graduating high school and continued to be an alcoholic until his arrest.

http://www.biography.com/people/jeffrey-dahmer-9264755?page=1
A question that is interesting in regards to serial killers is what led them to becoming a serial killer. This article discussed some of the many changes in Dahmer’s childhood that may have brought on his unusual behavior. The article mentions Dahmer being a “happy child” until he had minor surgery at around the same time his younger brother was born. The family also moved shortly after that from Iowa to Ohio. The article mentions that he began to have decreased self-confidence and became disengaged. Shortly after the move to Ohio his parents divorced. Surgery, a move, a sibling’s birth, and divorce can all have significant impact on a developing child. The article suggests that these events initiated the mental thoughts that led to murder.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/index.html
This final describes more details on the case of the young boy that escaped but was then returned to Dahmer’s apartment by the authorities. The article mentions how two women told the police that the young boy was actually a minor and that he was in danger. However, the police did not take these thoughts seriously and believed Dahmer instead. The good thing the police did was walk the boy back to Dahmer’s apartment. The article mentions that the apartment smelled bad. What I found concerning is that the police noticed the smell yet didn’t look into any of the other rooms of the apartment to locate the source of the odor. Also, the police did not take Dahmer’s ID and run it with the station to see if the man had any criminal history. Both of those points would have saved the young boy’s life and a few others.

Terms Used: Necrophilia, Insane, Competence, Paraphilia, Mental Illness, DSM

This chapter discussed the events and trial of Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer was a serial who was convicted of his crimes and sentenced to 957 years in prison. He preyed on males aging anywhere from teenage to adult. His tactic of luring his victims was to offer them with money to take pictures at his apartment. There, he would drug them and manipulate them while they were passed out. He did this for many years and didn't get charged with anything that would put him away. He evaded police by making up stories, drugging his victims, and even killing them. Though he dodged the police for some years, he had many close encounters where his young victims had escaped and neighbors calling him in. But he was eventually caught when he tried pursuing an adult in his thirties. He had the man at knifepoint for several hours before the man escaped and got help. This led to Dahmer's demise and downfall.
I believe that Dahmer was a terrible person and suffered from some sort of mental illness. However, I do not believe he insane where he could not tell right from wrong. I agree with Dr. Park Dietz's testimony on Dahmer (pg. 150). His paraphilias affected his sexual interests, but that would not affect his ability to think logically and clearly. With that said, I also think he is smart and clever. How else could he dodge the police for so long? He was nearly caught after he tried Konerak. Even after the extra persistence of the two women who had called in, he was still able to think on his feet and get him out of situations (unfortunately) that would've ended his spree off killing. I do think he deserved what he got.
Forensic psychology was relevant to this case because of the unusual way he murdered his victims. He sometimes cooked and ate his victims before he disposed of them. Also, abnormal psychology would involved because of his mental state. Not all psychologist and psychiatrists agreed on what he had, but they all knew something was wrong with him. Tracing back all the way to his teenaged years, he showed signs of danger, such as alcoholism. Also, clinical psychology would be relevant because of the therapy he had went through when he was younger and also the assessment as to whether therapy would have improved his state of mind.
The first link I read gave a biography of Dahmer's life starting when he was a child. The article goes into pretty good depth in telling the events of Dahmer's life. It talks about his first victim in high school, his parents divorce, his sexual interests, and his alcoholism. This article went further in describing the crime scene in his apartment. It gave specifics such as the drill sizes of the bits.
The second link I found interesting because it involves the person who escaped Dahmer that led to his conviction. Tracey Edwards was being charged with homocide. He pushed Jonny Jordan over a bridge and he drowned. Then it goes on to explain what happened between Dahmer and Edwards the night where he was caught. This is interesting because it shows the life of a victim of Dahmer's. What about of the other victims? What happened to them after their traumatic event?
The third link describes what happened on the night he was caught. It tells what was found inside of his apartment. Everything from the photos and body or body parts as described in the book. It also describes the complaints from neighbors (such as smell, and the Konerak incident) and the rejection of the insanity defense.

http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/dahmer.htm

http://abcnews.go.com/US/jeffrey-dahmer-hero-tracy-edwards-charged-homicide/story?id=14853608#.UD7zYUJX_ww

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cannibal-and-serial-killer-jeffrey-dahmer-is-caught

Chapter Twelve in Minds On Trial discusses the life and criminal offenses of Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer grew up in a suburban area with what seemed like a normal family-life. Growing up, he showed signs of what we now believe to be the early stages of criminal behavior. From starting fires to torturing small animals, he didn’t seem to have it all together as a kid. Furthermore, Dahmer may or may not have been sexually abused by a neighbor when he was eight years old. If true, this could have definitely lead to some of the criminal behaviors that would later follow. When Dahmer reached his early teen years, he struggled with the confusion of finding his sexuality. Throughout high school, he didn’t seem to get into any serious trouble, but he suffered from alcohol abuse after his parents divorced. He went onto college but dropped out soon after.
Dahmer committed his first murder when he was seventeen years old, and so he began his rancid killing spree. His profile suggests that his usual method of murdering his victims, which were men of various ages, consisted of him paying the victim to pose naked in his house. After he took pictures of the victims, he would drug and rape them before brutally beating them and dismembering their bodies. He would, on occasion, cook parts of the bodies and eat them. Certain body parts of victims would be kept as souvenirs throughout the household.
Though he did not have a perfectly clean criminal record, Dahmer got away with many of these murders without even being questioned. However, he did have quite a few close calls from victims that escaped before being murdered. After the specific case with Anoukone Sinthasomphone, Dahmer did face consequences with the legal system. As with most serial rapists and murderers, this did not stop his wrath. He continued to rape and murder men and it wasn’t until the case with Tracy Edwards that Dahmer’s killing spree came to an end. Dahmer lured Edwards into the house as he always did with his victims. However, Tracy was able to fight off Dahmer and flee to safety. After police arrived to the apartment, they found all of the evidence that they needed, including various pornographic photographs and body parts of the victims. After being charged with murder on multiple counts, Dahmer cooperated with the police and admitted to killing seventeen men. The courts battled back and forth, trying to decide if he should be sentenced to strictly jail time or if he should receive intensive psychological help. It was eventually decided that he would be sentenced to 957 years in prison. Two years into his sentence, he would brutally and ironically murdered by an inmate.
Clearly, psychology was going to be a huge factor in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer. How could one man rape and kill so many innocent people? Many psychologists were brought into the case to testify, for both the prosecution and the defense. Was Jeffrey Dahmer truly ‘insane’? Everyone had their own opinions. Some psychologists believed that Dahmer was a ‘sick’ man, but was competent and responsible for his actions because he had a clear insight as to what he was doing. He knew how to lie and clean up in order to cover up his murders. Though it was said that Dahmer was suffering from various mental illnesses, such as necrophilia, a variety of other paraphilias as noted in the DSM, and/or schizophrenia, none of these illnesses were proven to be able to alter his mindset during the crimes. In the end, Dahmer knew exactly what he was doing when he committed the crimes. Another psychological aspect that was significant to the crimes was his alcoholism. Dahmer knew that he was an alcoholic, as he abused alcohol since he was a teenager. This issue alone could have lead to various criminal acts in and of itself, so there isn’t much doubt that it contributed to the harsh acts he was involved in. Also, the fact that Dahmer was allegedly sexually abused as a child would definitely have been an influential factor in the crimes that he committed. Children that are abused are more than likely to suffer from it as adults.
Personally, I believe Dahmer to have been a very sick individual who should have sought help for his illnesses. However, to say he was insane may be a bit of a stretch. If he had a clear understanding of what he was doing, and can determine the difference from right and wrong, he deserved the punishment that he received. He clearly had the cognitive ability to cover up his crimes and make up stories to tell the police. However, I do believe that he should have gotten some type of psychological help while incarcerated. In the end, I am very happy his killing spree was stopped and he could no longer continue to hurt innocent people.

http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/d/Jeffrey%20Dahmer/jeffrey_dahmer.htm
This website discussed the death of Dahmer. Along with a brief overview of the criminal life that Dahmer had, it gave very gruesome pictures that were found in Dahmer’s possession. This website also gave a fellow prisoner’s insight on his murder, as well as an alleged copy of his death certificate. The book did not give much information on the death of Dahmer, so it was interesting to get a different side of the story.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/jeffrey-dahmer-hero-tracy-edwards-charged-homicide/story?id=14853608#.UD73I9ZlRWU
This was a very interesting article. Basically, it explains how the ‘hero’ in the Dahmer case, Tracy Edwards, is on trial himself for committing homicide. Apparently, he threw a man off of a bridge and he died from it. The article discusses how Edwards may have been psychologically impacted from his attack with Dahmer, and just could not recover from it. Edwards took responsibility for many of the crimes that he committed after the attack.

http://karisable.com/skazdahmer.htm
This webpage gave a lot of information about Dahmer’s life as a whole. I found particular interest in the in-depth explanation regarding when the police came to Dahmer’s home after a neighbor saw Konerak Sinthasomphone running around outside. This article gave a lot of insight on the ignorance of the policemen; how they failed to look at his identification, failed to notice the holes in his skull, and how the joked with the dispatchers about his sexuality and state of delusion. Not to mention, they somehow missed the smell of decaying corpses in the apartment. This article did a great job at thoroughly describing certain cases that the book just touched base on.

Terms: criminal behavior, sexuality, sexually abused, confusion, murder, rape, pornography, psychology/ists, nercrophilia, paraphilia, DSM, schizophrenia, insanity, incarcerated, alcoholism, defense/prosecution, homicide, cognitive

http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/d/Jeffrey%20Dahmer/jeffrey_dahmer.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/US/jeffrey-dahmer-hero-tracy-edwards-charged-homicide/story?id=14853608#.UD73I9ZlRWU
http://karisable.com/skazdahmer.htm

Jeffrey Dahmer was a man who basically hunted for young children through the streets. He would offer fifty dollars to boys for a opportunity to take a nude pictures. Finally a young boy by the name of Anoukone agreed. Dahmer took photographs and molested the kid. Anoukone escaped drugged. When Dahmer was brought to trail and evaluated by psychologist. Finally he begged the judge, that jail was not for the place for him. He was spared.

While no one knew Dahmer's background, which insisted of plenty of murders and sexual assults from the ages of four teen to forty-eight. After the he was let out of confinement he started killing once more. He would drug, molest, kill, sexually abused post-mortem, and at last cut the body into pieces and place them in his apartment or cook them up to eat.

Finally, he struck again and hauled Konerak, who was Anoukone's younger brother. When the cops were called. Dahmer made up lies saying that the fourteen year old was actually his boyfriend and nineteen years of age. Neighbors would call saying that the child was actually a child. Dahmer eventually killed him and dismembered him. Plenty murders later, police finally found pictures, pornography, and decaying bodies at his place. He was convicted and killed in jail by a mentally ill person.

When I read this story I was very disgusted to read and very shocked that human beings could be like this. I think Jeffrey Dahmer was a very sick person, but isn't insane. He had the ability to kill and cover up his doings. Although I do think he needed some psychological help when he finally got convicted. Or that the judge in the Anoukone's case should have been that easy on him. It would have probably prevented all these murders.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/29/us/jeffrey-dahmer-multiple-killer-is-bludgeoned-to-death-in-prison.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
This article talked more in depth on how he was murdered in jail. He was locked up in a Wisconsin prison. He was found dead with lots of head trauma by a toilet in the gym. It's believed that the other two inmates that where helping clean were the ones who brutally murdered him.

http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/dahmer.htm
Now this article talked about his early years and how he behaved. It about his insecurities as a child and spent time alone with his fantasies. In high school he had average grades, worked in the newspaper, and became an alcoholic. It also explained his first killing in more detail.

http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/d/Jeffrey%20Dahmer/jeffrey_dahmer.htm
This website provided information of Jeffrey Dahmer's death. And a side of another inmate at the time of the murder. It was interesting reading another person's view of what happened.

Terms: Psychology, mental illness, insanity, sexual abuse, rape, murder

Jeffery Dahmer: serial killer, murder, necrophilia, and cannibalism. This chapter contains the facts and analyzation about many aspects of Dahmer's criminal and personal life. In summary, this chapter tells about the repetitive acts of Dahmer's acts on each victim including; luring his victims, sedating them, sexually assaulting, murdering, and further grotesque acts with the remains of his victim. The chapter also includes insight to his psychologic issues and his plethora of diagnosis. The first case is about a thirteen year old boy whom Dahmer prayed with the repetitive process stated about with an exception of murder. This child, Anoukone Sinthasomphone, escaped seeked medical care with detail of what Dahmer had done to him prior. Dahmer was than arrested and charged. Dahmer was released with probation and low amount of sentences in spite of psychological findings stating Dahmer could have been defined; schizoid personality disorder, manipulative alcohol abuser, and abusive sex offender. This is significant because it is a key factor into the major killings to follow. By ignoring psychological findings the judge enabled Dahmer to continue on to his future victims. The chapter continues on to Dahmer's criminal acts of his pray maintaining the same repetitive process. One case that should have made a turn around in the chapter is when Dahmer lures Konerak Sinthasomphone to his apartment. In the acts the boy fled while witnesses contacted the police. When the officers arrived Dahmer played it off as if they were significant others. As a result of the officers neglecting the neighbors pleas, foul odor, the state of the victim, and the checking of criminal record for Dahmer, Konerak was strangled. Four others followed this murder until Dahmer's killing spree came to an end. The final victim escaped and approached the police and lead them back to Dahmer's apparent. Police then found enough evidence to take him into custody. Dahmer plead guilty and was sentenced to 957 years in prison. Dahmer was found dead after two years into his sentence.

My thoughts on this case are vividly grotesque. However, I am very interested how someones psychological mind can lead them to this type of acts. Another thing that interest me is the lack of court system with this case. As previously stated above the case of Sinthasomphone should have made a turn around. Legally the case should have been handled differently. I am curious on the motivation behind the officers that day. Why ignore the facts? Why not do your job? Does it have something to do with homosexuality? So many things in this chapter should have been brought to surface. The experts that observed Dahmer stated many diagnostics that should have played into the sentencing. However, the judge ignored the facts. This overall case totally intrigued me. Dahmer on multiple accounts out smarted and manipulated the court system and society.

www.personal.psu.edu/bfr3/blogs/asp/2012/03/dahmer-and-the-legal-system.html
This webpage is an educational blog that discusses the psychological matters of Dahmer. I enjoyed reading the comments as shown below to see a more developed discussion brought on by other psychology students. The main concept of this blog is the argument that he is not criminally insane and all of the acts were premeditated. One thing in the reading that intrigued me was that Dahmer would develop understanding about his case and speak openly about it and give detail and reason. Dahmer's remorse gives additional factor into his manipulative act toward the court system.

www.criminal-psychology.net/site/?p=460
This site gave further insight on Dahmer's life. The site develops a scence of why he might have done these things based on the development. I enjoyed further readings on how he grew up and his structure of development. The site goes on to tell his mothers life of depression and constant state of mental illness. It also tells about the neglect Dahmer received from his father, a chemist. To fully understand the case and Dahmer himself a further research needs to be developed on his past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErB0R4wlB64
I wanted to personally see and hear Dahmer speak, therefore, I watched an interview. I was so creeped out by hearing his voice and hearing his side of the story. He is very intelligent and shows total understanding of his emotion during his act. It also shows how sane he really is, he spoke very well and showed full remorse. This is very interesting, and for trial consultants observing him I can see why they would state he was showing improvement. There is no full way to understand him.

Key terms: Experts, Trial consultants, criminal behavior, sexual abuse,trial, sentence, insanity, diagnostic, cannibalism, mental illness, depression,victim.

Being born and raised in Milwaukee, WI, I have heard many stories about Jeffrey Dahmer. Some people I worked with knew people that personally worked with or knew Jeffrey Dahmer. My dad is also a Milwaukee police officer so he knows a lot about the case, but I personally did not know too much about it. I had heard the name a lot, but since the whole situation happened before I was born, it has become more of a reference or joke these days and I never heard the whole story. The chapter from Minds On Trial helped describe a lot of what happened with Dahmer luring men into his apartment and drugging them and either taking advantage of them sexually, killing them, or both. In many cases, after killing his victims, he would continue to take advantage of the body sexually and then proceed to cut it up and/or eat parts of it. I think this is truly disgusting and this man deserved to go to prison for life.
Jeffrey Dahmer was in court a few times before he was actually convicted and sentenced for all of his crimes. One of the things they talked about in his court dates was if he had psychological problems or not. The first judge talked about in the chapter was quick to ignore the psychologists who had studied Dahmer before the conviction. Most of the psychologists that evaluated concluded that he was an alcoholic and one even went as far as to say that Dahmer “might suffer from schizoid personality disorder.” After all these comments that Dahmer was not a good fit to be in society, the judge looked the other way and gave Dahmer a very short sentence; one that, if longer, could have solved a bunch more problems.
The police also missed a lot of information that could have put Dahmer behind bars sooner. In http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/3.html, the website talks about the boy named Konerak Sinthasomphone who was taken, drugged, sexually abuse, and finally killed by Jeffrey Dahmer. The police had come to the apartment where both Dahmer and Konerak were and did not investigate the situation enough. They listened to Dahmer instead of the two ladies who called in the crime and Konerak. The police concluded that this was just a domestic argument and they did not want to get in the middle of it. Little did they know how much horror they could have stopped if they just dug a little bit deeper into the situation.
The final time Dahmer was arrested, many more psychologists discussed and evaluated his well-being. Their conclusions ranged from Dahmer being insane and having no control over his actions because of his “sicknesses,” to Dahmer being completely in control of his actions and knowing that what he was doing to these men was very wrong. The psychologists looked into Dahmer’s past, trying to sort out what created this monster. The website http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/dahmer.htm goes into greater detail about Dahmer’s childhood, saying that he had a hernia surgery and after that he started acting more strangely. Also, his parents separated when he wasn’t quite 18 and he suffered from a drinking problem long before that.
In the chapter, Jeffrey Dahmer was diagnosed by one psychologists with “pedophilia (sexual attraction to prepubescent children), exhibitionism (deriving sexual satisfaction from exposing one’s genitals to others), transvestism (deriving pleasure from cross-dressing), voyeurism (sexual arousal from the surreptitious observation of others nude, disrobing, or engaging in an act of sex)” and finally necrophilia. On the site http://mensnewsdaily.com/2008/10/24/necrophilia-as-homecoming-jeff-dahmer-was-his-fathers-son/, it talks more about Dahmer having necrophilia, which is a desire to have sex with a corpse. This article goes on to talk about how Dahmer’s father was unresponsive to him and that Dahmer wished to carry that quality out in his victims. Others believe that Dahmer just wanted them to remain with him so he took away their own thinking ability. Whatever the reason be, I think that Jeffrey Dahmer was a very sick human being and I feel like many horrendous crimes he committed could have been taken care of if the justice system paid better attention to the details in certain situations.
http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/dahmer.htm
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/index.html
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2008/10/24/necrophilia-as-homecoming-jeff-dahmer-was-his-fathers-son/
Terms: schizoid personality disorder, domestic argument, alcoholic, pedophilia, exhibitionism, transvestism, voyeurism, necrophilia, convicted, trial, insane

Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer involved with necrophilia, cannibalism, and charged with 15 counts of murder. Jeffrey Dahmer’s case was one I had never heard of prior to our assigned reading. Dahmer’s case did not involve whether or not he committed the crimes rather was he sane committing the crimes.
The book describes Dahmer’s past leading to his horrid crimes. Dahmer had previous encounters with law breaking by means of being charged with lewd and lascivious behavior for masturbating publically in front of children. Dahmer later was charged with second-degree assault and the enticement of a child but was found not guilty and released. Dahmer was charged was based on his persuasion of a 14 year old boy to take nude pictures in his apartment for money. Once in the apartment Dahmer sexually abused the boy and drugged him. Luckily however the boy was able to escape. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Dahmer’s future victims.
Jeffery Dahmer’s sentence was to see a probation officer once a week, stay away from minors, and seek counseling. When I read this I was disgusted at our justice system. Clearly Jeffery Dahmer had an attraction to minors and should have had some sentence or at least should have been monitored more than once a week. Had Dahmer’s sentence been more severe would more of his victims been saved? I think they would have. Instead of seeing a probation officer once a week I believe they should have checked up on him more often. Maybe then authorities could have stopped this sick individual earlier. Although my suggestions would have been helpful in the past, I am exhibiting hindsight bias. I know now what Jeffery Dahmer would become but at the time the legal administrators had no idea. I still do not believe they handled the situation well but I know they had no idea what Jeffery Dahmer was, a monster.

Within months of Dahmer’s release he began a yearlong killing spree of homosexual men. Jeffery Dahmer lured his victims from gay bars, bathhouses, and other places to his apartment. Once there Dahmer would drug his victim, sexual molest him, kill him, farther sexually abused the dead, and finally cut his remains and either store them or eat them. This continued until one of his victims escaped. The neighbors called the cops and the officers responded finding Dahmer next to his victim. Dahmer explained to the cops that his victim was 19 (when he was only 13) and that he was his boyfriend. The police concluded it was a domestic situation that needed no further action. The neighbors however protested that the victim was only a boy who was badly hurt and needed help. The neighbors did not show the bystander affect in which they did not diffusion the responsibility for taking action. They instead took action by calling the police to help the victim. The intervention unfortunately was not enough for the poor victim who was later killed by Jeffery Dahmer.
In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer’s killing spree would finally be ended with the overall murder of 17 men. With his murders put to an end, Jeffrey Dahmer’s court case had just begun. The court case was a heated debate in whether or not Dahmer would plead insanity. Numerous psychologists took Dahmer’s case to argue his sanity or lack thereof. Some psychologists diagnosed Dahmer with having borderline personality disorder, necrophilia, and paranoid schizophrenia. Dahmer claimed to have performed a sort of brain surgery on his victims in order to make them sex zombies. He explained that he wanted them to obey Dahmer’s wishes and to not leave his apartment. After his victims died, Dahmer ate them because he felt it made him closer to them. Psychologists analyzed this as psychotic and that his sexual urges and fear of abandonment caused him to go through with his actions. Not all the psychologist believed Dahmer was eligible to plead insanity however. Although Dahmer’s actions were horrid and questioned his sanity, they believe he was sane at the time of his murders. They believed Dahmer knew what he was doing was wrong but chose to continue his actions anyway. The psychologists believed that Dahmer had a choice to commit his crimes; there were no mental illnesses that made him. Finally Dahmer was found guilty on 15 counts of murder. He was sentenced to 957 years in prison but would later be murdered by an inmate 2 years later.
I agree with the prosecution of claiming Jeffrey Dahmer as sane. Although Dahmer’s actions are completely unordinary and gruesome, Dahmer knew what he was doing and knew it was wrong. Dahmer was not acting on a mental illness forcing him to kill rather he was acting on his own pleasures. Although I believe Dahmer was sane at the time, I still believe he should receive a lot of mental help.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/aron/expert1123.htm

In this article, the author Stephen Lally describes the criteria in order to plead insanity in a criminal court case. He explains how some criminals will attempt this plead with a belief that it will get them off easier than pleading guilty. By pleading guilty, the criminals are viewed as responsible for their crimes. By pleading insanity however, the criminals may not be seen as equally responsible if not at all for their actions. Lally first describes a case in which a homeless man attacked a stranger in broad daylight only feet away from a police station. This man had been suffering for years from paranoid schizophrenia. Lally explains one way psychologists evaluate a person’s self-control would be to ask if they would commit the same crime in front of a police officer; this man did just that. What sets criminals apart from insanity Sally explains is if their mental state does not interfere with their understanding of their actions nor does it impair their control. In Jeffery Dahmer’s court case, many psychologists fought for and against his plea for insanity. On the defense side psychologists claim Dahmer was schizophrenic, had personality disorders, and had no control over his desire to be close to the victims by attempting to make them sex zombies, later killing and eating them. Sally argues that Jeffery Dahmer did have self-control. Jeffery Dahmer was fully aware of his crimes by his actions of secrecy. Dahmer hid his victims’ bodies, providing proof he was aware that what he was doing was wrong. When a police officer later confronted Dahmer, he was able to control his actions. I agree with Sully in his argument that Dahmer had control of his actions. Referring back to the homeless man, if Dahmer was in front of police, he would have never committed the horrid crimes he had committed. The fact that Dahmer tried covering his crimes proves that he knew what he was doing was illegal, but he proceed with his actions anyway. With Dahmer being aware of his actions and still preforming them, he deserved exactly the punishment he received.

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/symptoms-of-borderline-personality-disorder/

This website describes what borderline personality disorder is and its symptoms. Jeffery Dahmer was diagnosed by psychologists as having this disorder. Borderline personality disorder is described as having a pattern of instability in relationships, self-image, and emotions. One symptom described is the frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Dahmer expressed this symptom by attempting to make his victims sex zombies so that they would never leave him. Once Dahmer attempted brain surgery to make them as such failed, he mutilated their bodies keeping some parts around the house and eating other parts. Reasons he claimed for eating them was to keep them close to him. I do believe Jeffery Dahmer had this disorder however I still believe he was able to control his actions. The website also described borderline personality disorder as being impulsive. Although Dahmer had fear abandonment and went to extremes to avoid it, it was not impulsive. Dahmer’s murders were fairly consistent and not spur of the moment. Dahmer had a plan when he lured a new victim into his apartment. If Jeffery Dahmer did have borderline personality disorder, he was able to control his actions.

http://www.criminalprofiling.com/Psychiatric-Testimony-of-Jeffrey-Dahmer_s115.html

This article provides information of the psychotic testimony of Jeffrey Dahmer. In this testimony Dr. George Palermo, a forensic psychiatrist concluded that Dahmer’s actions were based on his frustrated homosexual desires. Dahmer reportedly had been teased as a child, forming feelings of hostility. Dr. Palermo believed that Dahmer had developed into a sexual sadist and that his hostile tendencies led to his murders. I agree that Dr. Palermo’s theory could be valid. Perhaps having sex with his victims satisfied Dahmer’s sexual desires and then killing them satisfied his hatred of being homosexual. Dahmer also kept body parts within his apartment that could have served as an amplification of his power and authority over his victims. Instead of preforming brain surgery on his victims to make them sex slaves, he could have performed it with the intention to see what made people homosexual. If he discovered that part of the brain that made them that way, maybe he could fix his. This of course is just a theory but does not make Jeffrey Dahmer insane nor does it justify his actions.

http://www.criminalprofiling.com/Psychiatric-Testimony-of-Jeffrey-Dahmer_s115.html

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/symptoms-of-borderline-personality-disorder/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/aron/expert1123.htm

I knew I had heard the name Jeffrey Dahmer before; in some off-color joke that I didn’t really understand. I thought he had something to do with the group of pioneers that got lost for the winter and had to resort to cannibalism to survive. After reading the chapter on Minds on Trial, I realized how very much mistaken I was. To my horror, I read about the atrocities committed by Mr. Dahmer, and couldn’t help but wonder how a person could go so wrong.
Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial killer who targeted young males. He would lure them into his apartment with an offer of money, usually asking to photograph them. Once they reached his apartment and begun taking photographs Dahmer would offer them a drink laced with sleeping medication. Once drugged the victims were then molested/raped, murdered, and mutilated. Even after dead, Dahmer would have sex with the bodies, pose them and take pictures, cut up the bodies and even eat their flesh.
Dahmer’s case is an interesting one though, in how it was dealt with in the legal system and it‘s use or lack of use of psychological evidence. In 1988 Dahmer was arrested for sexual assault on a child. He was convicted, and examined by three psychologist prior to sentencing. All three of the psychologists concluded that he lacked the motivation for treatment. The judge who did the sentencing disregarded their advice and sentenced him to 10 years probation with 1 year in a work release program. He was released after 10 months and told to seek help.
In May of 1991, police responded to a 911 call claiming an incoherent asian boy, naked and bleeding, running from a white man. The police showed up and Dahmer claimed it was his boyfriend and they were having a lover’s quarrel. The police escorted him up to Dahmer’s apartment. The police officers let there own notions of homosexuality blind them from what was really going on. They didn’t check for ID, they didn’t notice the drill holes in the boy’s head, they didn’t smell the stench of decaying bodies in Dahmer’s apartment. The police simply left the boy to be strangled and dismembered.
Dahmer would continue killing until July of 1991, when one of his victims escaped imprisonment and told the authorities. Police arrived at Dahmer’s apartment and were horrified at what they discovered:

“drawers full of photos of mutilated bodies and graphic homosexual pornography featuring these victims while they were alive; a refrigerator containing a severed human head and a freezer filled with two others; boxes, drawers, closets, and coolers jammed with decaying torsos, hands, male genitals, and other body parts; and a shelf lined with two human skulls.” (MOT, p. 145)

In his confession Dahmer told police that he went too far, but he didn’t do these acts out of hate, racism, or homosexuality. He claimed he did it to create a zombie, who wouldn’t leave him. To me that is just insane. And when reading what psychologists had to say on both sides of the trial I really was surprised by how they could have such different opinions on the case. It made me think this was just about the adversarial system they were embroiled in. One side’s job was to prove he was insane, the others to prove he was not insane.
The judge who presided over Dahmer’s 1989 sexual assault case had psychological findings available to him. He chose to disregard them and give Dahmer a lesser sentence. The three police officers responding to the 911 call in May of 1991 let their bigotry for homosexuality get in the way of what should have been obvious mistreatment of a minor. One police officer calling it a “boyfriend-boyfriend thing.” What the Dahmer case ultimately showed to me though was how law and psychology are intertwined both positively and negatively.

http://www.karisable.com/skazdahmer.htm

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199204/i-carried-it-too-far-thats-sure

http://www.criminal-psychology.net/site/?p=460

Terms: Cannibalism, serial killer, sexually assault, bigotry, homosexuality, insane, adversarial system, necrophilia, psychologist, psychology,

Being a Criminology major I have heard of Jeffrey Dahmer before, but wasn't sure of what the extent was that he did. This chapter gave a detailed description of the life that Jeffrey Dahmer lived; the life of a Serial Murderer, Necrophilia, and Cannibalism. Jeffrey would pursuade both men and boys to let him take nude pictures of them and would pay them for it, however there was a catch to the entire thing. Jeffrey would then drug them, take advantage of them, and then kill them. Depending on the person depended on what he would do with the body. Even though this entire chapter surprised me a lot of what Jeffrey did, the part that surprised me the most was the fact that when the second brother, Konerak Sinthasomphone fled and when the police came to where he was at, the police believed Jeffrey over the little boy. Jeffrey made up the entire story that they were dating and that he lived with him and that the boy had too much to drink and that's why he had ran from the apartment. It blew my mind that even though the little boy had all of the bruises all over him and was naked that they still let him go. The neighbors even had a say in the matter and they knew that something wasn't right but the police still didn't listen which ended up in Konerak being killed, which is something that will hang over the Milwaukee police for a very long time. By the end of the chapter, Jeffrey was convicted of all counts and had to serve 957 years in prison, which he ended up only serving abuot two years before being killed my another inmate where he said that "God told me to do it."

The chapter explained the psychological issues that Dahmer had been suffereing, one really big issue was that he was a manipulative alcohol abuser who really didn't have the motivation for any sort of treatment. There were many different theories has to what Jeffrey was suffering from. One psychologist thought he suffered from schizoid personality disorder and another one had thought that he was making progress while on bail. During his first trial, the defense attorney argued that Jeffrey shouldn't go to jail cause he was 'sick' and just needed help. However, the judge decided that he didn't need any treatment or go to jail and let him free which was probably the worst thing he could do. By the next trial which would be convicting him of all counts, many psychologists had their own opinions as to what was wrong: some thought he was insane, some thought he didn't even suffer from any sort of illness. Other sort of psychological disorders would be what he did with the bodies most after they were dead which gave the disorder of necrophilia, which brought in other types of paraphilias.

By the end of the chapter, I do believe that Jeffrey Dahmer was convicted of the right counts and pretty much have to spend the rest of his life in jail. People who do serious things like this shouldn't be allowed on the streets ever again. As far as any mental disorders he may have had, I do believe that Jeffrey knew what he was doing when he brought those boys/men into his home. He had them all carefully planned out from start to finish and he did this multiple times. Even when the brother tried running away, he had this story that he made up right on the spot and the police believed him. He may have had sexual disorders, but he wasn't insane.

http://writing.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977074132
This article gives the summary of Jeffrey's life when he was younger about how he started having fantasies about his sexuality, but didn't start acting on them until he was older. He lived with his grandma, but when his killing began he moved out. The article also talks about a few of the victims and gives us names of the other ones too. Just as the book, it gave us information about the crimes and the court sentence as well.

http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/dahmer.htm
This article gives information about a lot of Jeffrey's life, going from childhood, to pre-teen, to high school, before his first kill. During his pre-teen years his family moved to Ohio where it talked about Jeffrey picking up road kill, skinning the animals, and keeping the bones. After his first kill he spent six years with his grandma before moving out because there wasn't enough room for the bodies in her basement. This article talks about the crime scence of Jeffrey's house which was very disturbing.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cannibal-and-serial-killer-jeffrey-dahmer-is-caught
This article talks about the escape of Tracy Edwards, one of Jeffrey's victims, and how because of this escape the police discovered the grueling details of Jeffrey's past killings. It tells what the police found in the apartment and the forensic information that came out that showed 11 victims in the apartment.

terms:
serial murder
necrophilia
cannibalism
schizoid personality disorder
manipulative alcohol abuser
paraphilia

This story was impossible to put down. As a psychology major, I analyzed Jeff Dahmer's case from that view. As I kept reading, it was getting hard to tell which side I was for. Was he insane, or was he the ruthless killer the prosecutors made him out to be?

As I began to understand his life, I noticed that his home life was not anything out of the ordinary. One event in his life, the molestation, seemed to trigger the breakdown in Dahmer's mental state. This sexual abuse, the same act that he was doing to others, seemed to consume his mind and make him into a entirely different person.

One thing that was fairly evident, was Dahmer's need to be wanted. He kept the skulls, and apparently ate his victims in an effort to be closer to them. As sane people read this article, we find this morbid. To me, this behavior shows me that Dahmer really never let go of what happened to him.

As far as the legal system goes, he was not tried to the point that was able to analyze his sanity. If someone is molesting a child, something is not right in their mind. All too often, those who choose to commit these acts have once become victims themselves.

The legal system portrayed a certain weakness in order to preserve the human right that Dahmer had. While the could have never have known about the first homicide, the time to figure that out was also not spent.

Another problem that Dahmer had was struggling with his sexuality. This aided in his quest to find the men. The pattern wass complete with all of the things that Dahmer was dealing with. Find the boy (homosexual feelings) Abuse the man (the abuse that he suffered and never dealt with ) Kill the man ( The anger he felt towards the abuse) Necrophilia ( Being able to maintain control of the person as he was committing the act. Dahmer had complete control if the person was dead, and this became his main way of sexual satisfaction) Dismemberment ( To lessen the victims identity as a person, and also to keep this person around. Ie, keeping the skulls) and Eating the person. ( To make the person apart of him, and ultimately to make the person closer to him.)

The question of Dahmer's insanity was a main theme in this chapter. In the end, Dahmer's sanity was tried and he was sentenced to 957 years in prison. The better question is what would have most benefited Dahmer? Prison? or a Mental Hospital? The world will never know.

I have heard of Jeffrey Dahmer before but I have never knew the details of the case. After reading the Chapter of his case I was absolutely disgusted. The chapter went into great detail about what he did to his victims. Also I was in shock when it said he started killing at the age of seventeen. When I learned about the Dahmer case before it never went into detail about the police like this chapter did. I found it interesting that the cops had a couple times were they could of stopped him but didnt catch on fast enough. Overall it was a very interesting chapter to read and I enjoyed learning more about Jeffrey Dahmers case.

There were a lot of psychological aspects to the chapter like talking about how this could of happened to him and what the outcomes of this were. Here is a link that talks about dahmers childhood and some reasons on why he ended up the way he did when he grew up. Such as being molested as a child by his neighbor, he was abandoned, impaled the heads of animals, collected dead animals and had necrophillia desires, and scraping the skin off of dead animals.

http://karisable.com/skazdahmer.htm

This is another link that talks about Dahmers known victims and their are pictures of each one, talking about their lives and how he killed each one of them.

http://www.angelfire.com/fl5/headsinmyfridge/Victims.html

Finally this is another link that talks about his confessions and some more information about the killings and details about what he did with the bones.

http://www.tornadohills.com/dahmer/confess.htm