Serial Killer, Cannibal and Consumer: The Case of Jeffrey Dahmer's Monstrosity

Abstract

With the recent release of two Netflix true crime documentary series about Jeffrey Dahmer – Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022) and Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes (2022) – interest in the three-decade-old case has significantly increased. The research aims to investigate the popularity of the serial killer narrative and the role of the monstrous serial killer in society through examples of the Jeffrey Dahmer case. By determining the meaning of monstrosity and the modes of creating a monster, we shall present Dahmer as a figure opposing but also mirroring society. Dahmer’s cannibalism is equated with contemporary consumerist habits, especially regarding the steady influx of true crime narratives over the years and people’s subsequent obsession with consuming and distributing them and, as a result, commodifying violent murders. An analysis of the Jeffrey Dahmer case raises