Sabrina Rolbiecki  

Historical Investigation 

Global History 

A3 

Is Jeffrey Dahmer a victim of nature or nurture? In this historical investigation I investigated 

the depths of nature and nurture when it comes to the criminal mind of Jeffrey Dahmer. The 

historical methods I used were Primary sources, Secondary sources, Website, Gale database, Books. 

Two sources that I will be doing the OPVL is a Gale Database, and a Documentary.  

The origin of the primary source was made by Chris James Thompson. This source is the film 

director of the documentary named “The Jeffrey Dahmer files” the film was produced in 2013. The 

purpose this source was created to inform the public on the mischievous acts of Jeffrey Dahmer.The 

language used within this document is objective because you’re getting all the opinions of cops, 

neighbors, friends and even jeffrey dahmer himself.The tone of the source is very informative, You 

are constantly retrieving all of the information about jeffrey dahemerś everything,his life, his 

murders, his motives. In this documentary, they specifically mention Most of his murders, and the 

incentive for it. however, in the report they mention, that jeffrey dahmerś childhood specifically, and 

they only briefly covered his childhood as´normal´ yet, in all of these other sources seem to 

contradict that, and said his childhood was terrible and he was lacking attention from family. are 

they hiding something? The fact that the documentary was made during 2013 is limiting because 

this was made several years after he was arrested, and memory about the case could’ve been 

fabricated or foggy, based in new information. This is very valuable because the case was in 

Milwaukee, WIsconsin, making this reliable This is valuable because the documentary has interviews 

from the detectives who were called to the crime scene, and also people that jeffrey dahmer 

associated with in everyday whom had no idea of the events taking place behind the curtain. This is 
valuable because they have all inside views of the crime scene, and what occurred behind the 1

curtain that jeffrey dahmer pulled . This is valuable because this topic is extremely important 

because the public was constantly getting attacked with the information from the news, and this 

document could be clearing the information up.This is very valuable because in this documentary 

you are not really getting one side of the story, you are getting all sides of the story, because you 

have the policeś point of view, the reports, and not to mention jeffrey dahmer´s as well as his 

friends. This is very valuable because you are gaining facts , almost all the time. which is valuable a 

limitation to this is that they didn’t describe every murder, and i feel as if the document did leave out 

important details of jeffrey dahmer’s high school life and his childhood, i had to find these details 

long ways afterwards in other sources. 

The origin of the second source that i used in this investigation was a Gale Database, this 

Gale database was created during 1970. The language of this source is objective, strictly facts 

only.this source was created to compare the patterns of behavioral characteristics between identical 

or monozygotic and fraternal twins when put into different surroundings. this source was created 

for professionals to use when it comes to comparing twins and their similarities when they are born 

from the same mother yet separated at birth. The tone of this source frank, short and sweet to the 

point. the main / specific details they select to focus on their main point is the results ( which the 

twins were seperated from birth and yet had some similarities ) The date is both limiting and 

valuable because the since this was made during 1970 that is such a close time by the start of jeffrey 

dahmer’s murders, however this is limiting because this study was done so long ago, maybe if 

another recent study similar to this were made it would be more reliable due to the advances in 

technology we have made compared to the year of 1970. The location of the experiment is limiting 

because without knowing the location we are incapable of knowing if this is reliable. The type of 

source is valuable because we are purely getting an educational explanation of the study and its 

aims, methods and results. The purpose of this source is valuable because you are able to see the 

1
The Jeffrey Dahmer files
nature versus nurture affect because since the twins were born from the same genetic mother, 

however yet separated at birth they obtain different morals and they had some uncanny similarities 

, the saying “ the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” is truly proven in this study. The source was 

created for college professors/professionals , and this is valuable because since the source was 

created for professionals this source is more reliable when it comes to facts. The source is objective 

and they simply give us facts only. They state their aims, methods and results a perfect way for other 

professionals to use to analyze. Since the tone of the source was frank that makes the source 

valuable because there is no room to give opinions, there is simply just facts. with the information I 

believe overall this source is reliable and valuable to relate to the investigation because it really does 

use the two factors of nature versus nurture and they do compare the results with these twins 

which I think is amazing.   

2
 

Being a serial killer has more to do with the human development of a child’s brain than what 

meets the eye.Throughout Jeffrey Dahmer’s primary years he had overcame events that made an 

significance when growing up. Jeffrey Dahmer’s childhood was rough and held extreme tension 

causing trauma within his child brain developing. Jeffrey Dahmer was growing up in a broken 

household, his family underwent a divorce on June 1789. The nasty divorce resulted in foul 

exchanges between the two. Jeffrey was constantly moving around. Throughout the divorce there 

was a neglect towards jeffrey. His mother was known to be tense, greedy for attention and very 

argumentative wit her husband as well as their neighbors. Joyce Dahmer then attempted suicide 

from an overdose of the equanil pills in which she had became addicted to. Jeffrey Dahmer’s 

childhood consisted of constant fighting, yelling and tension within the household. 3 Serial killers 

often tend to come from unstable families with alcoholic histories.Not to mention during this rough 

patch that Jeffrey Dahmer was going through, his childhood tendencies included animal cruelty. 

2
​Scott, William K. "Gene and Environment." In ​Genetics​, edited by Richard Robinson, 54-57. Vol. 2. New York:
Macmillan Reference USA, 2003. ​Gale Virtual Reference Library​ (accessed February 1, 2018).
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3406500110/GVRL?u=gree82036&sid=GVRL&xid=06d58a24.

3
​Sutori. Accessed April 05, 2018. https://www.sutori.com/story/jeffrey-dahmer-66ae.
Having animal cruelty towards animals at a small age is proof of potentially being a psychopath 

when growing up. Animal cruelty is one of the strongest warning signs of all because children who 

torture/kill small animals show no remorse and are highly likely to become sociopaths. Jeffrey 

Dahmer would bike around the woods as a child and collect dead animals to dissect. Dahmer even 

killed and dissected his own puppy and then mounting it’s head on a stake when it was finished. 

This was a huge warning sign, due to the fact that he had shown no signs of remorse. Along with 

animal cruelty, Since Jeffrey Dahmer had a poor family life, Jeffrey Dahmer began drinking about the 

age of 14, He was then considered an Alcoholic. He used to drink all the time, even during his classes 

he would put vodka in a clear water bottle. By his high school graduation his alcoholism resulted in 

both his expulsion from college and the military. Jeffrey’s drinking became a coping mechanism for 

the divorce, and later on his murders became a coping mechanism as well. Jeffrey dahmer had a 

poor social life, He hardly communicate with anyone from his school. As a young middle schooler he 

was known to draw chalk outlines of bodies on the school playgrounds. John Derf ( a friend of jeffrey 

dahmer’s during high school) claimed Jeffrey “reeked of alcohol” was “distant from other students” . 

Jeffrey dahmer was very anti-social. Which shows his failure to relate to other students his age. All 

of this evidence becomes relevant to his mischievous murders because his nurture part of the 

equation was not pulling its weight within his child brain development which is crucial to growing up, 

and knowing the difference between right and wrong.  

4
 

Equally as important as childhood upbringing, Adulthood is a huge transition in life, new 

responsibilities, new stressors. Jeffrey Dahmer’s adulthood was the prime years of his murders. 

Jeffrey Dahmer’s very first murder occurred only three weeks after his graduation from high school. 

He claimed he had been dreaming about picking up a hitchhiker, yet never had the guts to go with it. 

However one summer day, Jeffrey Dahmer woke up with a determined mind to achieve his fantasy. 

Jeffrey Dahmer ended up hitting the man with a barbel knocking him unconscious, then proceeded 

4
​Philbin, Tom. ​I, Monster: Serial Killers in Their Own Chilling Words.​ Prometheus Books, 2011.
to strangle him to death. Every since a child, Jeffrey Dahmer had come quite fond of bones, he used 

to deconstruct the bones and analyze the structure. His motives for his victims were purely for 

pleasure. Jeffrey Dahmer wanted to make his victims into “zombies” . Jeffrey Dahmer would hunt 

for prey typically from a local club. Once spotted his next victim, he would drug his victim with 

sleeping pills. Once asleep, Jeffrey would drill holes into victims skulls. In his early murders he would 

then pour boiling water into the holes he drilled, but later on he replaced boiling water with acid. 

After his first murder, Jeffrey dahmer didn’t proceed with the other murders until later. Jeffrey 

Dahmer ended up dropping out of college after quarter one. Jeffrey dahmer’s grade tanked. Not 

long after dropping college, Jeffrey was forced to join the military because his father believed he was 

a disgrace to dropout of college,, so his father thought it would be good to join the military. Jeffrey 

dahmer was then kicked out of the military due to his alcoholic habits and his inappropriate action 

towards other the whole soldiers. After being kicked out of the military, Jeffrey hit a all time low in 

his life. Feeling like he had no purpose in life, or as if he didn’t belong caused him to ‘act out’. Jeffrey 

dahmer.He served a brief 10 months in minimum security confinement that allow him to leave for 

work at night, however he served for possession of child pornography. while the period that he was 

able to leave the confinement he was able to proceed with his murders on a timely fashion. His 

adulthood has a significant impact when answering the question nature versus nurture because his 

adulthood is a result of his nature. 

5
 

Even though both play a significant role in life, which condition did Jeffrey Dahmer succumb 

to? Nature according to psychology is focused on genetic , hormonal and neurochemical explanation 

of behavior, meanwhile Nurture according to psychology is focused on all behavior learned from the 

environment through conditioning. Nature could be a great factor when it comes to criminology, 

however so does Nurture. Many experts agree that it’s not one or the other, nature or nurture but 

rather a combination of the two. Jeffrey Dahmer was a sociopath, with this means that he has no 

5
​Philbin, Tom. ​I, Monster: Serial Killers in Their Own Chilling Words​. Prometheus Books, 2011.
remorse for his actions, It turns out Jeffrey Dahmer did have biological reasonings for his action. 

There happened to be damage to his Prefrontal cortex. The Prefrontal Cortex is known for your 

decision-making skills. This is the part of the brain that filters out spontaneous or dangerous ideas 

for the best of yourself. These biological factors could have had a big affect on jeffrey Dahmer’s 

murders because he was incapable of knowing right from wrong. However, when it comes to 

searching about nurture part, there is a theory called the Social Learning Theory (SLT). The (SLT) was 

made by Albert Bandura (1965) and suggests that behaviors are learned from the environment 

through the process of modeling and reinforcement. In Albert Bandura’s study, the aim was to test 

whether children would learn aggressive behavior by imitating models. This study was made up of 

3-5 year old students, they were first evaluated for aggression by having their parents and teacher 

describe their behavior. In this study there were three different conditions to test the theory ; 

whether the child was exposed to violence or not, the gender of the child, the gender of the model. 

The children then watched a model male/female according to which ever condition they were 

assigned to act aggressive towards the Bobo doll ( yelling, hitting, not sharing toys) or act passively 

towards the bobo doll ( assembling toys) or they had no model. After watching their model, the 

children were then put into a room with toys, and they were told that they weren’t allowed to play 

with all of the toys within the room because they were meant for “other children”. The results of this 

experiment was that those who watched the aggressive model had a negative reaction to being told 

they were allowed to play with the toys in the room, more than those who didn't watch a model at 

all, thus proving the Social Learning Theory. Since it is human nature to learn from the conditions in 

which surround us, nature has a big impact in human behavior, Jeffrey Dahmer’s home life wasn’t as 

cozy as others. It included constant domestic violence with his parents, neglect and so much more. 

Could it be possible that he learned his violent side from conditions he was living in? A study that 

could provide evidence of the effects of the environment has on the development of a human is the 

twins study. Which was a study conducted during 1970. The aim of this study was to compare the 

patterns of behavioral characteristics between identical or monozygotic and fraternal twins when 

put into different surroundings. In the study they separate twins, and put them in different 
environments, foster homes, or with the original parents, and the results were absolutely uncanny, 

they found differences in behavior, as well as some original similarities. Like maybe the same 

favorite color to something as significant as their partner having the same name. In this study they 

took A combination of both nature and nurture could have a chilling result of a psychopath, murder6

, sociopath and more. This is relevant when answering the question nature vs. nurture because we 

realize it’s not just one or the other however more of the combination that gets to behave a certain 

way7 

In conclusion, There could be alot of possible reasons as to why jeffrey dahmer is the way he 

behaves, however, Nurture seems to be the strongest factor in his behavior, due to the fact of the 

social learning theory, and how children learn from their environment, there were some biological 

factors that played a role into his behavior such as a prefrontal cortex damage which enables Jeffrey 

dahmer to make a decent decision behave the way he did. 

Reflection Part C: 

Finding sources was always a struggle during this rigorous investigation. However, what i can say

is that a skill that i was able to use is looking for more than just 2 sources to backup the information i was

gaining. This was a very useful source because you were able to tell what was fact because the fact was

appearing in more than just one source. This made the sources I had more reliable, Another method I

used for this Investigation was trying to stray away from secondary sources. Mostly, because most of the

6
Rose, Richard J., and Danielle M. Dick. "Behavior." In ​Genetics,​ edited by Richard Robinson, 46-52. Vol. 1. New
York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003. ​Gale Virtual Reference Library​ (accessed February 7, 2018).
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3406500027/GVRL?u=gree82036&sid=GVRL&xid=e38b09d6.

7
​Rose, Richard J., and Danielle M. Dick. "Behavior." In ​Genetics,​ edited by Richard Robinson, 46-52. Vol. 1. New
York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003. ​Gale Virtual Reference Library​ (accessed February 7, 2018).
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3406500027/GVRL?u=gree82036&sid=GVRL&xid=e38b09d6.
secondary sources on this event were news articles and the News are notorious for telling white lies to

the public to gain more popularity. So I found myself looking for more primary sources, books, gale

databases, etc. the difference between bias and opinion is that bias is prejudice against one

thing/person/event that show inclination for or against that event or thing. While on the other hand

perspective is when you’re getting purely facts from different sides of the event/person. Selection when

explaining history is very similar to bias and others can confuse the two. However, perspective is the fact

of choosing or selecting a preference, and it’s carefully chosen and representative of that choice. I believe

when it comes to significant events within history you’re going to make up your mind about the topic, ad

eventually, you will form an opinion but i do believe it is possible to describe historical events in an

unbiased way. In order to do so, you would be required to give purly facts. Which mean you do not give

sentences in a connotive manner. You would state what happen and you wouldn’t give any descriptive

details that may be able to form an opinion on.