Jeffery Dahmer was born in was Milwaukee on May 21st 1960, he was described to be energetic and outgoing, up until the age of 4 when he had corrective surgery for double hernia which seemed to alter the boy, he became withdrawn with the coming births of more family members and the families frequent moving habits by his teens, he was disengaged and largely friendless. He claims that his urges started at the age of 14, but other evidence points to his parents bitter divorce. He was beaten to death with a metal pole from the weight room by a fellow inmate and pronounced dead on November 28th 1994.
The Murders
Jeffery killed 17 men between 1978-1991 his first murder, a hitch hiker by the name Steven Hicks, was taken in by Dahmer, where he was soon intoxicated and killed when he tried to leave, he later on would dismember the corpse and pack it into plastic bags before burying them behind his parents home. He later retrieved the body crushing the bones with a sledgehammer scattering the remains around a ravine.
Around this time his alcoholism was at it's peak, dropping out of college, his father insisted he enrolled into the army, he was enlisted December 1978 and posted in Germany soon after, he was discharged due to alcohol problems, the German authorities tried to tie him to murders in the area although it's believed that he took to more victims in his time in the forces.
In September of 1987 he killed a second time, Steven Tuomi, the pair checked into a hotel and drank into the night, Dahmer awoke the next morning with Tuomi dead and no recollection of the nights activities, he purchased a large suitcase to take the body back to his grandmothers house where he dismembered and masturbated over the corpse before disposing of it.
During the next 13 years he would seek out African-American men at gay bars, malls and bus stops, drawing them in with the promise of money or sex, drugging them before killing them and performing sexual acts on the bodies, sometimes keeping skulls and genitalia as souvenirs, taking photos of the victim at different stages of murder so he could recall the experience at a later date.
Neurological approach
Neurological approach would assume that areas of the brain work in conjunction to each other otherwise known as lateralisation of function while others work independently, otherwise known
as localisation of function. Brain imaging techniques have helped discover a link between neurological dysfunction and criminal behaviour.
Frontal and temporal lobes
Dysfunction in the frontal and temporal lobes may lead to violent behaviour (Gunn and Taylor, 2014). The limbic system located in temporal lobe controls emotion such as fear, pleasure and anger.
The frontal lobe however, is responsible for higher cognitive functions such as understanding emotions and planning reactions. Gunn and Taylor argue that individuals with dysfunction in these areas
of the brain are more likely to be criminal due to unchecked emotions. An example of this is Phineas Gage, who obtained damage to both lobes which had a drastic effect on his personality, creating
erratic and impulsive temperament.
Amygdala
The amygdala as been associated with aggressive behaviour through research such as that carried out by Coccaro et al (2007) who investigated the effects of the amygdala on 202 participants
with inherit explosive disorder. P's were shown images of faces with a range of expressions whilst undergoing a fMRI scan of their brain. He found a significant difference between the group with IED
and the control group when shown angry faces. The group with IED showed significant higher levels of activity within the amygdala demonstrating association between the amygdala activity and aggression.
An example of this is Charles Whitman who shot and killed 21 people at the uni of Texas who was found to have a subsequently larger amygdala.
Application of Neurological Approach
Forebrain-Dahmer's frontal lobes would have been smaller, as aforementioned the frontal lobe is responsible for emotions and planning, this would help in explaining Dahmer's lack of morals, guilt, empathy and his less than conventional sexual appetites.The corpus callosum holds the left and right side of the brain together, Dahmers would have poorly held these hemispheres together meaning he would be more aggressive than the average person.
Midbrain-Dahmer's amygdala would have been larger, also responsible for his aggression, considering he killed and mutilated the bodies of seventeen men, it's safe to say he was just a little bit aggressive, as well as aggression, it also has ties to controlling anger and the processing of emotions. The hypocampus is responsible for long term memories and attention, his hypocampus would have had a floor in only the right hemisphere resulting in high levels of attention when killing and pleasant emotions triggering during murders.
Hindbrain-The thalamus is the sensory control center of the brain, allocating certain sensations to certain parts of the brain, as well as connections to sexual and pleasant feelings. Dahmer's was functioning incorrectly meaning when one area of the brain activates another part will activate as well, for example a violent act will be associated with a pleasurable feeling it will also inhibit Dahmer from empathising with others.
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