Was Jeffrey Dahmer Insane

According to WGBH Education Foundation (2014), out of the court cases that plead insanity only 1% of those cases is a criminals outcome affected. Therefore, the few cases that are changed by the plea of insanity are very significant and have to meet certain standards. Jeffrey Dahmer had many mental illnesses but was not considered insane enough to add to this statistic. Jeffrey Dahmer’s case was not the most significant point in the courts understanding of mental illness because he was able to decide if an action was right or wrong, he was not considered insane, and pleading insanity did not benefit his outcome. Biography.com (2018) states that Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial killer who was convicted of the murders or 17 males between 1978 and 1991. He would murder his victims and often perform sexual acts with the corpses as well as dismember them and keep certain body parts. Dahmer developed these necrophiliac habits as a result of the tragic childhood he lived (Jamet, 2012). As a child, he would often kill small animals or go search for roadkill in his free time (Jamet, 2012). These habits contributed to the idea of having sexual relations with a corpse that Dahmer later developed. When Dahmer was tried he initially pleaded not guilty, although he had confessed to police already, but eventually pleaded guilty by insanity. In

Each state sets its own standards and many follow the same set. In 1843, the M'Naghten rule was created, declaring insanity as not being able to decide if an act is right or wrong because of a mental disease (WGBH, 2014). Another rule that many states follow was created in 1962 and states that “if the defendant does not have remorse of the wrongfulness of the act or they act on an irresistible impulse” (WGBH, 2014) they will be treated as insane in the eyes of the court. A few states including Montana, Idaho, and Utah do not allow the insanity plea in their courts at