InsaneJournal

277 // criminology class // open
[ It’s been 20 days since the last Criminology class. Almost three weeks since he returned to Marina again. He wasn’t sure about starting up the classes — still isn’t — but routines are good and so here they are. Maybe he should’ve picked a milder subject, but… hey. Why not kick it off with something properly gory and horrifying? ]

First of all… I apologise for the delay in starting the classes up again. They should resume according to schedule from now on. As always, there are copies of the topics covered in previous classes available for those of you that weren’t here at the time.

In today’s class, we’re going to talk about anthropophagy, more commonly known as cannibalism. This would be the time to leave if you’re easily disturbed.

HISTORICAL SERIAL KILLER – Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal, was an American serial killer and sex offender, who committed the rape, murder and dismemberment of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with many of his later murders also involving necrophilia, cannibalism and the permanent preservation of body parts—typically all or part of the skeletal structure.
Dahmer committed his first murder in the summer of 1978, at the age of 18, just three weeks after his graduation. At the time, he was living alone in the family home: due to his parents' recent divorce, Dahmer's father temporarily lived in a nearby motel and his mother had relocated to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin with his younger brother. On June 18, Dahmer picked up an 18-year-old hitchhiker named Steven Mark Hicks. Dahmer lured the youth to his house on the pretext of the pair drinking alcohol together. Hicks, who had been hitchhiking to a rock concert in Lockwood Corners, agreed to accompany Dahmer to his house. According to Dahmer, after several hours' drinking and listening to music, Hicks informed Dahmer he "wanted to leave and I didn't want him to." In response, Dahmer bludgeoned the youth with a 10 lb.dumbbell. Dahmer later stated he struck the youth twice from behind with the dumbbell as Hicks sat upon a chair. When Hicks fell unconscious, Dahmer strangled the youth to death with the bar of the dumbbell, then stripped the clothes from Hicks's body before masturbating as he stood above the corpse.

Dahmer was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, had a long history of substance abuse — particularly alcohol, marijuana and amphetamines — and readily admitted to having engaged in a number of paraphilic behaviors, including necrophilia, exhibitionism, hebephilia, fetishism,pygmalionism, and erotophonophilia. He is also known to have several partialisms, including anthropophagy. One particular focus of Dahmer's partialism was the victim's chest area. By his own admission, what caught his attention to Steven Hicks hitchhiking in 1978 was the fact the youth was bare-chested; he also conceded it was possible that his viewing the exposed chest of Steven Tuomi in 1987 while in a drunken stupor may have led him to unsuccessfully attempt to tear Tuomi's heart from his chest. Moreover, almost all the murders Dahmer committed from 1990 onwards involved a ritual of posing the victims' bodies in suggestive positions—many pictures taken prior to dismemberment depict the victims' bodies with the chest thrust outwards.

Dahmer also derived sexual pleasure from the viscera of his victims; he would often masturbate and ejaculate into the body cavity and at other times, literally used the internal organs as a masturbatory aid. According to the testimony of several experts who testified at Dahmer's trial, he was not a sexual sadist. Dr. Park Dietz—testifying on behalf of the prosecution—stated: "He did not torture and took steps to prevent suffering."

[ Wiki ] 

PSYCHOLOGY — Anthropophagy/cannibalism

Cannibalism — from Caníbales, the Spanish name for the Caribs, a West Indies tribe formerly well known for practicing cannibalism — is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. The expression "cannibalism" has been extended into zoology to mean one individual of a species consuming all or part of another individual of the same species as food, including sexual cannibalism. Haematophilia — the desire to drink human blood — can also be classified under cannibalism, but it’s important to remember that one does not necessarily involve the other.

It’s also important to think about the context — cannibalism has been said to test the bounds of cultural relativism as it challenges anthropologists "to define what is or is not beyond the pale of acceptable human behavior". In certain cultures it’s an acceptable practice, which is also why there’s a reluctance towards classifying cannibalism as a mental disorder. Some psychologist claim that the desire to eat flesh or drink blood can stem from trauma during childhood, especially related to the attachment with the mother.

[ Wiki on cannibalism ]


PRACTICAL APPLICATION

[ There is no practical application for this class. Instead he’ll put focus on the Q&A section — questions are especially encouraged this time around. ]

Q&A

[ A Q&A thread can be found here for all your question-based needs! There is also a suggestions box available — just note that your character is dropping a note in the box in the subject header and it will be brought up during the next class! ]