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Jeffrey Dahmer’s Brain: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer
Decades after the grisly murders, what can neuroscience reveal about evil and the nature of free will?
In 1995, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was on trial. Or at least his brain was. This trial was not to convict Dahmer of murdering and cannibalizing 17 mostly young Black men.
This trial would decide whether Dahmer’s brain should be donated to science or cremated.
His mom, Joyce Dahmer (Flint), wanted answers. Joyce requested that scientists study her son’s brain to determine if biological factors caused his violence.
His dad Lionel Dahmer wanted closure. Lionel wanted his son’s brain cremated and to put the saga behind him.
On December 13, 1995, a judge ordered Dahmer’s brain cremated, forever preventing scientists from revealing its secrets. But decades later, neuroscientists have studied the criminal mind and found commonalities.
This is your brain on murder
In 2019, University of Chicago neuroscientists scanned the brains of 800 violent criminals to answer one pivotal question — is a killer’s brain different from other brains?
Unlike previous studies, the researchers used only incarcerated criminals and eliminated any brains with mental illnesses or traumatic brain injuries.
The results were surprising. Researchers found that criminal brains had reduced grey matter with decreased activity in the brain’s orbitofrontal cortex and anterior temporal lobes — the areas which control emotional processing and social cognition. Basically, the brain areas that regulate emotions and empathy toward others were damaged or weakened.
Most interestingly, the researchers did not find differences in the brains of ALL violent criminals. They only found differences in those who committed homicides. So the brain of a murderer looks very different from that of a mugger.
These studies still had their limitations. Researchers were only taking one snapshot in time. More informative data would determine when these brain changes occurred. Were the criminals born this way, or did they develop a murderer’s brain…
