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Sociological Analysis of Serial Killers: John Wayne Gacy and Jeffery Dahmer

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Words: 1121 |

Pages: 2|

6 min read

Published: Apr 11, 2022

Words: 1121|Pages: 2|6 min read

Published: Apr 11, 2022

The actions of serial killers shock many people and they wonder why serial killers do what they do, and what would make a killer more malicious than another killer. John Wayne Gacy and Jeffery Dahmer, two of the most infamous serial killers of the 20th century, can be compared through the use of various sociological theories and devices, which can work together, to gauge the psychopathy of these killers as well as produce an amply supported explanation of why they do what they do. Some devices and explanations include Michael Stone’s gradations of evil, Robert Hare’s psychopathy checklist, James Fallon’s explanation of the cause of evil in his “exploring the mind of a killer” TED talk and lastly Phillip Zimbardos analysis of evil in his “psychology of Evil” TED talk, which will be used to get an understanding of Gacy and Dahmer by examining their lives and behavior.

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Two sociological instruments that can gauge the psychopathy of Dahmer and Gacy are Michael Stone’s gradations of evil and Robert Hare’s psychopathy checklist. Michael Stone’s gradation of evil is used to gauge how evil a person is by examining criminal behavior. Gacy tortured, raped and murdered his victims,Dahmer was a necrophile who also tortured, raped, murdered his victims but he would also cannibalize his victims. Dahmer and Gacy fall under category 17 because they were sexually perverse serial killers, however they did torture their victims so they also fall in category 18. In Stones gradations, category 17 and 18 fall under the sixth level in the gradations of evil, the third level is where psychopathic features start to show. Dahmer and Gacy surpass level three by 3 levels, making them psychopaths, according to Stone’s method. Dr Robert hare’s revised psychopathy checklist can gauge the number and extent of psychopathic behavioral and personality traits Gacy and Dahmer had, which will help show how psychopathic were and whether or not one of them was more psychopathic than the other. Hare has established a scoring system, the range for most ordinary people is less than 20, 20 to 29 is borderline psychopathy and a score of 30 or above meets the grounds of psychopathy (Hare). The traits Hare features in the personality category of his checklist are glibness and superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self worth, a pathological inability to tell the truth a need to con and manipulate others, a lack of remorse or guilt, shallow affect, callousness and a lack of empathy and failure to accept responsibility for his or her own actions. In the second factor of his checklist, Hare presents the behavioral characteristic of a psychopath which are maintaining a parasitic lifestyle, poor behavioral control, an inability to adopt realistic long term goals, impulsivity, irresponsibility, juvenile delinquency, early behavior problems, need for stimulation or proneness to boredom, revocation of condition release, serial short term marital or common law relationships and sexual promiscuity (Hare). Testing these killers has led to an interesting conclusion, Gacy scored a 24, Dahmer on the other hand scored a 31. It boggles the mind that Gacy does not meet the full criteria of a psychopath in Hare’s checklist. Gacy scored less than Dahmer because he exhibited no early behavioral problems, no juvenile delinquency, and did have realistic long-term goals. However these factors are more trivial and less severe in nature compared to other features like glibness, pathological lying, criminal versatility which Gacy excelled in. If anything Gacy acted more psychopathic than Dahmer in the sense that he was more manipulative, and opportunistic such as using the employees of his workplace as a stream of potential victims, manipulating his residential community into believing he was an ordinary and friendly man.

Psychologist, Phil Zimbardo and neuroscientist, James Fallon, explain the causes of evil through their TED talks. James Fallon’s TED talk features a biologically grounded approach of explaining what makes evil people, in which he discusses the interplay between genetics, brain damage and environment. Fallon states a person must have temporal lobe damage, an MAO-A gene variant, which expresses when a person has been exposed to stressful and violent situations early in life, in order to become a psychopath. Not all people who are brought up in terrible environments wind up as serial killers, but judging by the way Gacy and Dahmer turned out, it is very likely they had temporal lobe damage and the right genetic predisposition that would cause psychopathy to manifest in response to their turbulent early lives. Phil Zimbardo uses bad apples, bad barrel makers and bad barrels as an analogy of the dispositional, systematic and situational causes of evil in his TED talk which can help provide a deeper understanding of Dahmer and Gacy. It is apparent that these serial killers were “bad apples” because they had evil dispositional features, evident by their position in Hare’s gradations, high scores in hare’s checklist and the likelihood of having damaged temporal lobes and inheriting the MAO-A variant gene. The bad barrel is a metaphor for the situational circumstances that make people evil. In the case of Dahmer and Gacy, their bad barrels were their early years in life. Gacy was raised by his abusive homophobic father who taunted him for being too girly (Crime and Investigation). Dahmer had no social life and had distant parents who were too busy arguing in front of him and worrying about their divorce rather than their him. Dahmer and Gacy were unfortunate enough to have terrible upbringings and the wrong gene, which were the right circumstances needed to turn them into psychopaths. The systematic features present in Dahmer’s case were that he was gay and had mental health problems, which he hid, due the stigmatization of homosexuality and mental health problems that were prevalent in the 1970s. The greatest causes of Gacy’s psychopathy was his abusive, alcoholic father whose temperament may have been a result of his time during world war one, and having negative views on homosexuality which were common in the earlier half of the 20th century.

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The use of effective sociological tools and theories has brought an enhanced understanding of Gacy and Dahmer however Hare’s tool has led to an interesting result: that Gacy is not a psychopath. In an effort to conform to this Hare’s checklist, one can conclude that Gacy was at least a sociopath, Stone would have said Gacy is one of those killers who “can be sadistic without being psychopathic”. What can be concluded is that these tools and theories don’t always provide clean cut classifications for everyone, however the most important thing to keep in mind is that even if a serial killer does not meet the criteria of a psychopath, it doesn’t make them any less of a threat to society and human life. 

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Sociological Analysis Of Serial Killers: John Wayne Gacy And Jeffery Dahmer. (2022, April 11). GradesFixer. Retrieved March 29, 2024, from https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/sociological-analysis-of-serial-killers-john-wayne-gacy-and-jeffery-dahmer/
“Sociological Analysis Of Serial Killers: John Wayne Gacy And Jeffery Dahmer.” GradesFixer, 11 Apr. 2022, gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/sociological-analysis-of-serial-killers-john-wayne-gacy-and-jeffery-dahmer/
Sociological Analysis Of Serial Killers: John Wayne Gacy And Jeffery Dahmer. [online]. Available at: <https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/sociological-analysis-of-serial-killers-john-wayne-gacy-and-jeffery-dahmer/> [Accessed 29 Mar. 2024].
Sociological Analysis Of Serial Killers: John Wayne Gacy And Jeffery Dahmer [Internet]. GradesFixer. 2022 Apr 11 [cited 2024 Mar 29]. Available from: https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/sociological-analysis-of-serial-killers-john-wayne-gacy-and-jeffery-dahmer/
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