Psychology

Forensic psychology, from a criminal perspective, is defined as the intersection between psychology and criminal justice system. A forensic psychologist is supposed to understand criminal law in various relevant jurisdictions so as to interact properly with legal professionals such as judges and attorneys. One of the most important aspects of forensic psychology is to provide necessary information about criminal findings in a courtroom. In relation to the requirements of the paper, definition of forensic psychology would be linked to a case of Jeffrey Dahmer who is considered to be one of the worst serial killers in America.

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born in 1960 and died on November 28, 1994 in West Allis. He is considered as one of the common American serial killers and sex offenders. Jeffrey was accused of murdering 17 men and boys, many of whom were of African or Asian descent (Bardsley, 1999). He murdered his victims and most of the crimes investigated through forensic psychology involved rape, torture, cannibalism, dismemberment, and necrophilia.

The early life of Dahmer was tricky because he was sexually molested by a neighbor, and this probably was one of the most significant contributing factors to his dangerous activities. He dropped out of university and his father forced him to join the Army. This did not work as expected due to alcoholism. He was therefore discharged from the Army in 1981 and this gave him the chance to travel everywhere in the world. He moved to Florida beach where he worked in a chocolate factory and slept in the beach. Jeffrey Dahmer was shy and looked innocent in his actions until he got drunk. Alcohol was the major problem in the history of this serial killer once he got drunk, he became very violent as was testified by his friends (Time, 2004). His silence, shyness, and innocence made it hard for administrative officers to suspect him of any wrong doing.

His first crime of murder was in the summer of 1978 when his family was away. At this time, he was living with his father. During this particular day, his father was not in the house. He offered a hitchhiker named Steven Hicks drinks in his fathers house. His intention was to make him drunk and have sex with him. The instance happened when Hicks decided to leave while Dahmer had not accomplished his mission. He used a barbell to murder Hicks and buried his body in the backyard. A period of nine years passed until he claimed another life, Steven Tuomi (Biography.com, n.d.). This was a turning point for Jeffrey Dahmer who murdered a number of victims after having sex with them.

Jeffrey Dahmer moved to Milwaukee in May 1990 where he picked up the pace of his killings. In a span of one year, he had murdered seven people after sexually molesting them. In May 30th, 1991, a fourteen-year old boy by the name of Konerak Sinthasomphone escaped from Dahmer house (Davis, 1991). The boy was seen on the street naked, drunk, and bleeding. The boy was rescued by two young women from the neighborhood who called 911.

Dahmer was still chasing this boy, but the young women stopped him and his explanations to the police saved him. The house of Dahmer had a strange smell from decomposing bodies of other victims. That night was the fateful day of Sinthasomphone he was killed by Dahmer who kept his skull as a souvenir (Davis, 1991). Escape from the law during this particular episode worsened the actions of Dahmer who was already killing approximately one person each week at this point. Jeffrey Dahmer was very clever and preserved the human remains through the use of hydrochloric acid. The residents living in the apartment started to be concerned about activities happening in Dahmers house and strange smell. The neighbors decided to take legal actions by alerting the police.

The arrest of Dahmer happened on July 22, 1991 when he lured Tracy Edwards into his home. He tried to handcuff him but the man resisted and he managed to handcuff one of his hands. Edwards noticed the strange smell coming from Dahmers room, and seeing the pictures of mangled bodies on the wall, he noticed something was wrong. Edwards wrestled Dahmer and finally escaped.
 
Edwards ran on the street and waved for help to a police car belonging to Milwaukee Police Department. Edwards led the police to Dahmers apartments. At first, Dahmer acted friendly towards the police. One officer arrested Dahmer and the other searched in his refrigerator where he found human skulls and human remains. After thorough research, the officers noticed that Dahmer practiced necrophilia and cannibalism (Charles, 2001).

Dahmer looked shy but intelligent he showed no signs of being engaged in permanent sexual relationships, whether homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual. He remained a man of mystery. The major questions were why he engaged in necrophilia activities, mutilation, and murder. He was convicted with sex offenses (Simon, 1996).

According to officials in charge of sex offenders in Milwaukee, sex offenses are recidivist crimes because offenders like Dahmer have their own internal motives that require thorough and intensive investigation. The offense of sexual molestation starts at a young age when the sexual offenders were neglected by their parents, sexually abused, abandoned, or emotionally and or physically abused. In the case of Dahmer, he faced all these offenses during his childhood, but he did not admit that he went through all these tortures (Simon, 1996).  The reason for not admitting this was that the police could use his testimony for a sexual offender.

Forensic psychologists helped the police to establish the profile of Dahmer. The psychologist, in his opinion, classified Dahmer as an individual with paranoid personality. His personality made him hard to carry on with criminal actions without a feeling of guilt, worry, or remorse for hurting, torturing, or killing any human being. Most victims who fell in the hands of Dahmer struggled to death.

According to a forensic psychiatrist, a consultant for FBI, argued that most serial killers such as Dahmer strangle their victims. This is because they consider it as a personal and intimate means of killing sexually molested victims. Dahmer strangled his victims for the purpose of sexual desire (Feinberg, 2003). Many serial killers according to a forensic psychiatrist are sexually aroused by the blood of strangled victims. Alcoholism or drug abuse is another characteristic of a serial killer. The combination of all these characteristics of serial killer fit in the profile of Dahmer. He was an alcoholic, racist, and homophobic, and this may have caused him to torture and kill his victims (Feinberg, 2003).

Jeffrey Dahmer is considered one of the most common serial killers in the history of criminology. Many unresolved killings in as far as Germany and California are associated with Dahmer. In California, a human foot was discovered near Fresno where one of his relatives lived. The foot is considered to be one of the victims who disappeared in 1990 (Chermak, 1995).

Homicide investigators tried to determine whether Dahmer made trips to California often. The investigation was carried out within a stipulated time frame of interest. In Germany, authorities in forensic department tried to investigate Dahmer in relation to five mutilation slayings that occurred near an army base where Dahmer served. One of the victims was found strangled to death near the Army base.

Jeffrey Dahmer denied being involved in such accusations except the ones he confessed to the police. Dahmer issued a statement about all his confessions through his attorney. He said that he never committed any crime in any foreign country or any other states except the one in Ohio. However, despite his statement, US Attorney General Dick promised to work with FBI and Justice Department so as to reveal the profile of Dahmer (Biressi, 2001). The FBI also worked hand in hand with Milwaukee police to pursue other possible homicides by Dahmer.

A thorough forensic investigation revealed that Dahmer had murdered 11 men and 1 boy. He confessed to killing five other people, but the police had not done a thorough investigation to bring formal charges against Dahmer. The sentence of these offenses is severe and each count carries mandatory life imprisonment sentence. Dahmer confessed killing only 17 people, 16 of whom were identified. Forensic authorities, however, feared that more victims had been killed by Dahmer and an extensive investigation should be carried out. However, in spite of all these charges, Dahmer has a constitutional right to be treated like any other American citizen (Lippit, 1996). This means that he was innocent of all accusations until proven guilty in a court of law.

The arrest of Dahmer occurred in his house by Mueller, a police officer attached to the Milwaukee Police Department. A search warrant was issued by the police department and a team of police officers went through Dahmers apartment. After a thorough search, it came out that horrible killings occurred in the house of the serial killer. A team of investigators converged in the apartment and their aim was to interview residents within the building. They wanted to collect information about the activities carried on the Oxford apartments by Dahmer. In addition, they wanted to know whether any individual had a clue on any unusual happening from Dahmers apartment (Grixti, 1995). The investigators wanted to establish the reason for not reporting the foul odor coming from Dahmers house. Some of the residents said that Dahmer was seen carrying large bags and thought he was carrying garbage. Others said that they thought the odor from Dahmers was of rotting stray cats he brought within the house. Wilcox was praised for his brave work of helping the police to arrest Dahmer. His narration to the police about what transpired in the house of Dahmer needs credit. He overpowered a dangerous man to safe the lives of many individuals.

Investigation by the Milwaukee police indicated that Dahmer was a not a stranger to law enforcement. He was on several occasions arrested because of drunkenness and disturbance of peace. One incident according to investigation showed that he was arrested for dropping his pants in front of a group of children.

Investigators found a number of human remains in the house of Dahmer and believed that sexual perversity was the major factor that contributed to the murder of several people by Dahmer. Another reason according to forensic psychiatrists that led to several deaths attributed to Dahmer was loneliness (Edward, 1998). Dahmer lived alone in Oxford Apartments and this was considered as the major reason that led to sexual molestation and serial killings. According to one detective, Dahmer told him that the reason for keeping the human parts was to get company. This is a sign that Dahmer was very lonely and he carried out his activities in an attempt to resolve his problem.

The detectives obtained records about Dahmer from Wisconsins Department of Corrections. This aimed at related the provisions of such reports and provisions made by neighboring residents. One of the reports stated that Dahmer was a victim of depression but no signs of carrying out any murderous activities. During his interviews with probation officers, Dahmer confessed to all sexual involvement, but no case of murder was confessed (Lippit, 1996). He confessed that he was a victim of child molestation and feared his father who was too controlling.

According to certain investigation done with respect to Dahmers victims, reports show that most victims were male. Forensic investigators interviewed Dahmer and found that he had tasted human flesh. This is an indication that Dahmer engaged in cannibalism and perhaps one of the reasons he murdered people was to eat their flesh. All investigations were carried in relation to the crimes committed by Dahmer (Feinberg, 2003).

Dahmer was indicted on 17 murder charges but they were reduced to 15 charges on the basis of insanity. He pleaded not guilty of the accusations by reason of being insane. Dahmer was convicted of murder for all 15 charges and sentenced to life terms that amounted to 957 years in prison (Biressi, 2001). He died on November 28, 1994 while serving his jail term. His death was caused by his fellow prisoner who hit him with a metal bar.