Proposed Typology of Companion Animal Abuse
TL;DR: Analysis of the records of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in South Africa indicated the usefulness of a typology of companion animal abuse for general application to identify the different types of abuse.
Abstract: Companion animal abuse is a universal phenomenon recorded since the earliest times. The lack of standardized definitions concerning companion animal abuse impedes research and reporting on the subject. In order to address this problem a typology of companion animal abuse is proposed for general application to identify the different types of abuse. Analysis of the records of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in South Africa indicated the usefulness of such a typology. Education based on the typology may contribute to the prevention of companion animal abuse.
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TL;DR: In this article, the criminal records of 153 animal abusers and 153 control participants were tracked and compared, finding that animal abuse was more likely than control participants to be interpersonally violent, but also were more likely to commit property offenses, drug offenses, and public disorder offenses.
Abstract: Results from this study challenge the assumption that animal abusers commonly “graduate” from violence against animals to violence against humans. The criminal records of 153 animal abusers and 153 control participants were tracked and compared. Animal abusers were more likely than control participants to be interpersonally violent, but they also were more likely to commit property offenses, drug offenses, and public disorder offenses. Thus, there was an association between animal abuse and a variety of antisocial behaviors, but not violence alone. Moreover, when the time order between official records of animal abuse and interpersonal violence was examined, animal abuse was no more likely to precede than follow violent offenses. Although these findings dispute the assumption that animal abuse inevitably leads to violence toward humans, they point to an association between animal abuse and a host of antisocial behaviors, including violence. Also discussed are the methodological problems of demonstrating s...
265 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider a variety of arguments about why theory and research on animal abuse should be developed by criminologists and conclude that animal abuse is an important object of study for criminology not only sui generis but also because its presence may indicate or predict situations of interhuman violence.
Abstract: This article considers a variety of arguments about why theory and research on animal abuse should be developed by criminologists. These include, with more or less satisfaction, the status of animal abuse as (1) a signifier of actual or potential interhuman conflict, (2) an existing object of criminal law, (3) an item in the utilitarian calculus on the avoidance of pain and suffering, (4) a violation of rights, and (5) one of several oppressions identified by feminism as an interconnected whole. The article concludes that animal abuse is an important object of study for criminology not only sui generis but also because its presence may indicate or predict situations of interhuman violence.
166 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a theory that explains why individuals engage in animal abuse, drawing on the leading crime theories and the limited research on animal abuse to explain why individuals commit animal abuse.
Abstract: This article draws on the leading crime theories and the limited research on animal abuse to present a theory that explains why individuals engage in animal abuse. First, I describe the immediate d...
135 citations
TL;DR: A study of 267 college undergraduates examined the relationship between corporal punishment inflicted by parents and the perpetration of animal abuse and found that males who committed animal cruelty in childhood or adolescence were physically punished more frequently by their fathers, both as preteens and teenagers, than males who did not perpetrate animal abuse as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The link between interpersonal violence and violence to animals has been suggested, but rarely studied empirically, especially by family scholars. This study of 267 college undergraduates examined the relationship between corporal punishment inflicted by parents and the perpetration of animal abuse. The findings revealed that males who committed animal cruelty in childhood or adolescence were physically punished more frequently by their fathers, both as preteens and teenagers, than males who did not perpetrate animal abuse. This relationship did not hold for males spanked by mothers or for females spanked by either parent. Regression analyses showed that the association between fathers' corporal punishment and sons' childhood animal cruelty persisted after controlling for child abuse, father-to-mother violence, and father's education. The implications of the association of animal abuse and family violence and its gendered nature are discussed. Key Words: animal abuse, animal cruelty, corporal punishment, family violence, spanking. Although the link between the treatment of animals and the treatment of humans enjoys a long historical and philosophical tradition (DeViney, Dickert, & Lockwood, 1983; Lockwood & Ascione, 1998), surprisingly little attention has been given to the specific connection between violence to animals and various forms of family violence. In fact, only three published studies have examined this relationship directly-two focus on violence toward children (DeViney et al., 1983; Miller & Knutson, 1997), and one focuses on battered women (Ascione, 1998). Boat (1995) suggested that the virtual absence of empirical research on the association between violence toward children and violence toward animals may be an ignored link in the field of child abuse and neglect. Children's cruelty to animals should receive serious attention from researchers, clinicians, and policymakers for several reasons. First, clinical studies of troubled youth and retrospective studies of physically and sexually aggressive criminals have revealed an association between childhood animal abuse and subsequent violence toward others, both in childhood and adulthood (Felthous & Kellert, 1986; Rigdon & Tapia, 1977; Tapia, 1977; Tingle, Barnard, Robbins, Newman, & Hutchinson, 1986). Second, cruel or abusive behavior toward animals by children may indicate serious developmental problems or potential psychopathology. Animal cruelty has been associated with a distortion or inhibition of empathy (Ascione, 1992, 1993), and beginning in 1987 the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edition, revised) added physical cruelty to animals to the list of symptoms serving as criteria for the diagnosis of conduct disorder (Ascione, 1993). Third, childhood cruelty toward animals may identify not only children who may engage in future antisocial behavior, but also those who are living in violent, dysfunctional families (Arkow, 1996; Boat, 1995). Finally, the needless suffering and death of countless animals are major problems that deserve attention. The limited empirical evidence linking violence to children and children's cruelty to animals has focused on severe or abusive violence inflicted on children. Yet a growing body of research has revealed potential negative outcomes from what many regard as ordinary or normal use of physical force-corporal punishment. The study presented here seeks to examine the relationship between receiving corporal punishment and perpetrating animal abuse as a child or adolescent. This research is significant in several ways. It explores the relationship between parent-to-child violence and animal abuse using a nonclinical sample. It focuses on corporal punishment, not child abuse, it looks at corporal punishment received prior to and during adolescence, and it examines the influence of the gender of both the punishing parent and the child. …
133 citations
TL;DR: This work compares and contrast animal hoarding to the compulsive hoarding of objects and draws upon attachment theory, the literature of personality disorder and trauma, and the own clinical experience to propose a developmental trajectory for animal hoarders.
87 citations
Cites result from "Proposed Typology of Companion Anim..."
...…animal hoarding was not about pet-keeping or sheltering gone awry, since extreme animal suffering in conjunction with strong attachment was inconsistent with all previously described theoretical notions about the human-animal bond (Beck & Katcher, 1996; Patronek, 2008; Vermeulen & Odendaal,1993)....
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TL;DR: This article examined the relationship between childhood cruelty toward animals and aggressive behavior among criminals and noncriminals in adulthood and found that childhood cruelty towards animals occurred to a significantly greater degree among aggressive criminals than among non-aggressive criminals or non-criminals.
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between childhood cruelty toward animals and aggressive behavior among criminals and noncriminals in adulthood.Data were derived from personal interviews with 152 criminals and noncriminals in Kansas and Connecticut. A standardized, closed, and open-ended interview, requiring approximately 1-2 hours to complete, was administered to all subjects. Aggressiveness was defined by behavioral criteria rather than by reason for incarceration.Childhood cruelty toward animals occurred to a significantly greater degree among aggressive criminals than among nonaggressive criminals or noncriminals. Additionally, the occurrence of more than 40 cases of extreme animal crielty facilitated the development of a preliminary classification of nine distinct motivations for animal cruelty. Finally, family violence, particularly paternal abuse and alcoholism, were significantly more common among aggressive criminals with a history of childhood cruelty toward animals.
256 citations
TL;DR: Identification of such a relationship could improve understanding of impulsive violence and facilitate early intervention and prevention and identify several methodological factors that may have contributed to the contradictory findings.
Abstract: The existing literature on the relationship between childhood cruelty to animals and later violence against people appears to be inconsistent The authors review the controlled studies that did not support this relationship and those that did and identify several methodological factors that may have contributed to the contradictory findings Studies using direct interviews to examine subjects with multiple acts of violence point to an association between a pattern of childhood animal cruelty and later serious, recurrent aggression against people Identification of such a relationship could improve understanding of impulsive violence and facilitate early intervention and prevention
142 citations
TL;DR: The present weaknesses in each of the models need to be rigorously analyzed for likenesses and differences, and those data that do not seem to fit any of the model analogues must be pinpointed for more exacting research.
Abstract: While studies of human/animal interactions have generated much creditable research, have produced a considerable body of related experimental data, and have pointed to many fruitful future lines of inquiry, their authors have been accused of having no theoretical foundations. But studies of the human/companion animal bond (H/CAB) already undertaken have been based on animal/animal, human/human, and human/object relationships as analogous theories most likely to provide the comprehensive inductive, deductive, and functional theoretical bases needed.In order to arrive at a more encompassing theory that can be used to organize data and results, to explain obtained results, and to generate reliable predictions for data not yet obtained, the present weaknesses in each of the models need to be rigorously analyzed for likenesses and differences, and those data that do not seem to fit any of the model analogues must be pinpointed for more exacting research.
49 citations