The figure of a remorseless, methodical, inherently monstrous psychopath-killer has been mythologized in numerous movies, books, and TV shows. One of the most notorious examples is Jeffrey Dahmer; he murdered, dismembered, performed necrophiliac acts on, and consumed portions of seventeen young men between 1978 and 1991 (Freeman, 2021). Dahmer’s deviant acts can be understood through the lens of developmental criminology, an academic field that focuses on the life circumstances and criminal patterns of persistent offenders. The life course, latent trait, and trajectory theories offer three different theoretical frameworks to analyze and explain the roots of Dahmer’s behavior.
Firstly, the life course theory studies the progression of criminal behavior over an individual’s lifetime as influenceable by certain events. Dahmer became more private, uncommunicative, and reclusive in his early childhood after a painful hernia operation, family’s relocation to a different state, and an increasingly turbulent home environment due to his parents’ fighting (Freeman, 2021). He was allegedly sexually molested when he was eight years old and began dissecting roadkill, displaying the mutilated corpses in a wooded area near his home. When he was eighteen, during his parents’ divorce proceedings, Dahmer spontaneously murdered a hitchhiker and masturbated over the corpse. According to the life course theory, Dahmer’s withdrawal from society and escalation to murder can be explained through pivotal events such as his hernia operation, alleged sexual assault, alcohol addiction, and parents’ divorce.
Secondly, the trajectory theory suggests that crime results from multiple interacting factors that direct a person toward deviant behavior. Dahmer’s reclusiveness, inability to connect with his peers, and rigid body posture indicate a biological developmental disorder such as Asperger’s (Sandhu, 2021). An autism disorder, dysfunctional family dynamics, his mother’s illness, and Dahmer’s ambivalence about his sexual attraction to men might have served as the biopsychosocial basis of his trajectory toward crime (Sandhu, 2021). However, while these factors could have possibly incited Dahmer to bursts of violence, they do not adequately explain his desire to “possess,” “control,” and “capture” his victims (Freeman, 2021, p. 29). While Dahmer doubtlessly experienced several biological, psychological, and social stressors, his necrophilic and cannibalistic tendencies remain unexplained by the trajectory theory.
Lastly, the latent trait theory states that criminals are controlled by a specific and unchangeable master trait that compels them to commit a crime. In the framework of this theory, Dahmer’s obsession with dissecting animals and necrophilic fantasies from a young age are not connected to the other events in his life but are simply manifestations of his latent, inborn psychopathy and desire to kill. His first plans to beat people into unconsciousness in order to have an opportunity to fondle them without resistance were formulated when he was only seventeen (Freeman, 2021). Given the mundanity of the supposedly pivotal events in his life, such as family conflict and surgery—the sexual assault remains unconfirmed—the latent trait theory is probably the most applicable in Dahmer’s case. While he suffered from parental neglect and distress during the divorce proceedings, it is not enough to justify his gruesome killing and cannibalism if he did not already have some deviant predilections. Dahmer’s pattern of childhood animal cruelty and misanthropy are indicators of his latent psychopathy that manifested fully once he became an adult and drove him to commit his first murder.
In conclusion, the latent trait theory offers the best explanation for the cannibalistic and necrophilic dimensions of Dahmer’s crimes. There were undeniably some biopsychosocial stressors in his life, such as a hernia operation, family conflict, and possibly an undiagnosed Asperger’s disorder. However, the relative mundanity of these events does not account for the depth of his crimes, rendering the life course and trajectory theory moot in this case. Dahmer dissected and displayed animals as a young child and fantasized about fondling unconscious victims when he was an adolescent, indicating a latent and innate propensity for violence that came into fruition once he reached adulthood.
References
Freeman, C. F. (2021). A case study of Jeffrey Dahmer [Master’s thesis, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa].
Sandhu, P. (2021). Literature Review: Neurodevelopmental and psychosocial risk factors in serial killers and mass murderers. UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal, 13(2), 1-10.