The crimes were horrible and there is never going to be a good enough reason for it to have happened. Nothing so bad could have happened to Jefferey Dahmer to make it okay.
I do wonder if there was an untreated mental illness or other issue that contributed? His mother was taking 26 medications while she was pregnant with him in 1960. They didn't say why she was taking the medications. The drugs could have had a horrible effect on his brain or body. Since 1960 there have been huge advances in medicine and we know so much more about the importance of a healthy pregnancy. We also know that chemical imbalances make life very difficult and how better to treat flawed brain chemistry.
Jefferey didn't seem to be evil, he had unexplainable and destructive urges. I will never understand the urge to do what he did. He seemed to struggle with the idea of being a functioning member of society, and just always seemed to fail at it. I would have to learn so much more about him because this movie only gives you a little bit of information about him. This movie helped the viewer to understand what the Dahmer family went through. I was a child growing up in Milwaukee when he got caught. Media was not very kind to the Dahmer family and this made me understand their point-of-view.
My question is...would things have happened the same with the changes in laws and medicine over the years?

Wow, what a bunch of tripe. I thought it was a documentary until about 10 seconds into it. You gotta know it is going to be a dud when Bo Svenson is your name star. And the acting, wow, how many pauses in a sentence do you think you need to do? Oh and about those words they call a script, it was hard to follow. But the detective did kill himself which never actually happened in the real Dahmer case.

This was a decent movie, if you were really interested in Jeffry's family. I was hoping for more about Jeffry Dahmer than that of his father. It was an hour worth of generic crap. Really, it wasn't even about Jeffry Dahmer, but about his family. It seems that Jeffry was just kind of an after thought. There was not much about him or his crimes. The script was pretty crappy, I spent over an hour watching crap about his family. It just left me wanting more.

...you'll love this one. All over the place in terms of presentation and filming. Actor playing the father could not have been more wooden.Writing and editing were both horrible - like "Plan 9 from Outer Space" horrible.Finally, there is just not much meat here. We all knew the kid tortured animals. We all knew he was homosexual and into the occult. This film really offers nothing not already out there - and frankly, it's just not worth the time.

Obviously, it's hard deciphering fact from fiction in cases like this. However heinous these crimes were, this movie reminds you of the family and friends that are left with the pain, sorrow, and rumors. Makes you think before passing judgement. Good movie.

I LOVE docudramas like this and seriel killers fascinate me... so I especially liked the idea of seeing it in story form vs. interviews and report form. But the acting in this was really bad. I dunno - maybe it was someone's college film-making class project... in which case it's very good and the student has much to improve upon. On its own however - the acting was horrible, transitions were blocky and jerky at best, and time was wasted in long drawn out moments that really could have been put to better use. I still liked it overall.... but that's because I'm a sucker for sickos and psychos!

After having read a few of the reviews, I started watching this movie fully intending to watch only a few minutes. And I do assure you, that, as other reviewers have already mentioned, this is NOT a movie to watch for its entertainment value. I ended up watching the entire movie because after the first few minutes, I was totally hooked. While the movie does depict a bit of information about Jeffrey Dahmer's crimes and actions, what I personally heard was more about how his actions affected his parents and his grandmother. Even with the depictions in the movie, I still find it difficult, if not impossible, to even begin to imagine the effects on me had I been Jeffrey's parent. The remorse, the guilt, the self-accusations and self-questioning. All of the "What did I do wrong as a parent?" issues, as well as "What could I have done differently?" I can only assume that in all probability, Jeffrey's family were never able to answer those questions for themselves. Hopefully, at some point, they WERE able to ACCEPT what had happened and to shed any remaining feelings of responsibility for the actions of another. In the end, usually long before, we're all faced with the truth that we are powerless over the actions of other people, places, and things.