The Effects of Childhood Neglect — Did Jeffrey Dahmer's Parents Fail Him?
Many believe that his parents' neglectful upbringing helped make him into the prolific serial killer we know today.
The other night my husband and I watched the final episode of the Dahmer series on Netflix, which was highly unsettling. I am a Milwaukee native who used to live in the same apartment building as Dahmer. However, I was only a toddler, so I learned everything via my mom's stories. I firmly believe that living there made my mom obsessed with understanding how the mind of someone such as Dahmer works. This would later pass on to me.
Over the years, I would find myself watching countless documentaries on serial killers.
I wanted to understand what could trigger someone to do such horrific things, and Dahmer seemed like the perfect case study. As I learned more about him, I couldn't help but feel empathy for him. In the series (and in real life), it is clear that his parents didn't have a clue how to deal with him. He was timid and withdrawn, and they had no idea how to help him. As depicted on the show, his mom was a stay-at-home mom with many issues, and his dad worked long hours.
They were both well-meaning, but they didn't have the parenting skills to deal with Dahmer.