Dennis Nilsen's Theory Of Criminal Behavior

Between the mid-late 1970s and the early 1980s, Dennis Nilsen began mass murdering young men in Great Britain that had at least 15 men through strangulation (Crime Investigation, 2014). In analyzing his life, many of contributions throughout his life could have influenced his criminal behaviour when committing his crimes. Many theories such as broken home hypothesis and schema therapy theory use psychological explanations that determine how the individual resulted into committing their crimes. With schema therapy theory, not only does it discuss the justification for criminal behaviour, but suggests how to reduce the relapse of criminal acts by identifying the cause or the trigger of the individual’s criminal behaviour (Vos et al., 2016). In Dennis Nilsen’s life, there are several indications such as the abandonment of his family members, the termination of a past relationship, and the reclusiveness from society that could have resulted

As children at young age are very impressionable, an early childhood experiences can influence a child that can affect them ass an adult. During Nilsen’s childhood, his parent’s divorced when he was at a young age where he went to live with his mother and siblings at his maternal grandfather’s home (Crime Investigation, 2014). As they lived the home, Nilsen became very attached to his grandfather; however, Nilsen’s grandfather had passed away when he was 6 years old which impacted Nilsen when viewing his corpse at the funeral (Crime Investigation, 2014). Along with losing his grandfather, Nilsen became isolated when his mother remarried and had four more children from that marriage (Crime Investigation, 2014). A theory known as “Broken Home Hypothesis” suggests that children who are raised without one or both biological parents are most likely to commit acts than other children who are raised in a nuclear family (Kierkus & Baer,