Why does animal cruelty occur

Other research has shown consistent patterns of animal cruelty among perpetrators of other forms of violence, including child abuse, spousal abuse and elder abuse. In fact, the American Psychiatric Association considers animal cruelty one of the diagnostic criteria of conduct disorder.

Depending on the severity of the case, those convicted of animal cruelty can be imprisoned. Appropriate sentencing can also include individual or family counseling, community service, placement in a diversion program and a prohibition on owning or caring for animals. It is rarely the goal of police to imprison a child for cruelty to animals.

Law enforcement officers and judges recognize that cruelty to animals is one part of a complex problem. Sometimes, the official response to animal cruelty provides a family its first opportunity to get help. While many jurisdictions will respond to an anonymous complaint, successful prosecutions often depend on an identifiable witness who can authenticate evidence. Because there is no national reporting requirement for animal abuse, there is no way to track the number of animal cruelty cases that are filed or that make it to court each year.

The idea of creating animal abuser registries, similar to sex abuser registries, has been advocated for a long time. The nation's first such registry was established in Suffolk County, N. Be aware of the signs of animal cruelty and know how to report suspected cruelty to animals and sign up to be notified about actions you can take to bring animal abusers to justice.

Animal neglect situations are those in which the animal's caretaker or owner fails to provide food, water, shelter or veterinary care sufficient for survival. It can be either deliberate or unintentional, but either way, the animal suffers terribly. Extended periods of neglect can lead to seriously compromised health or even death. Animal cause control agencies nationwide report that animal neglect cases are the most common calls to which they respond.

The pain of an animal who lingers with untreated illness or wounds, or without nourishment or shelter, can be tremendous—sometimes even more so than those who are victims of directly inflicted violence, because their suffering is so prolonged. Animals who starve to death experience a myriad of painful symptoms throughout each stage of their physical deterioration.

An initial loss of body fat is followed by muscle loss and atrophy and, ultimately, organ failure. In long-term starvation, degeneration of the liver, cardiac changes, anemia and skin lesions may develop. An animal without proper shelter can also quickly succumb to extreme heat or cold. During extremely cold spells or hot periods, it is not uncommon for animal control officers to find companion animals—often chained dogs —literally frozen to the ground or dead from heat prostration because of lack of proper shelter from the elements.

Often these animals perish only feet away from the homes in which their caretakers live. Dogs who are continually chained are also neglect victims, even if it may not be illegal in that particular jurisdiction. Because dogs are social pack animals, isolating them at the end of a chain causes them anguish that can drive them to aggression, neuroses and self-mutilation behaviors.

Chained dogs are also more likely to be victims of starvation, because their confinement renders them particularly helpless. This is particularly true in cases of animal hoarding , where a person takes in far too many animals than can be cared for and becomes virtually blind to their suffering. Cats are the most common animal-hoarding victims. When we think about cases where human lives are at stake, we often tend to think in deontological terms.

Even animal activists, committed to a view of animals and humans as moral equals, may be inclined to see animals and humans from these differing perspectives. At an animal activist conference in Melbourne last year before the pandemic we divided the audience into small groups and gave them different scenarios featuring different species. An informal experiment, but it seems to illustrate a very human tendency to think of animals and humans according to different standards.

That tendency has been observed in many contexts. Robert Nozick influentially discusses a bifurcated view along these lines in his classic Anarchy, State, and Utopia. But the question of whether such a view can be attributed to ordinary people is only recently being rigorously studied by psychologists such as Lucius Caviola at Harvard University.

Read more: Illegal hunters are a bigger problem on farms than animal activists — so why aren't we talking about that? Beyond psychological research, we can look to institutions for evidence that this sort of bifurcated view is widespread, as we have argued elsewhere. For example, when animals are used in scientific experimentation, researchers are mainly expected to show the benefits outweigh the costs: a utilitarian standard.

So we tend to be more utilitarian about animals than about humans. Think about your family dog. Would your conscience allow you to kill her to save five other dogs? For an example, consider the way the fishing industry treats bycatch as disposable. Such a view is defended by world-renowned Australian philosopher Peter Singer , among many others.

And famous philosophers such as Tom Regan have argued a vast range of animals ought to be seen in that way. Duncan A, Miller C. The impact of an abusive family context on childhood animal cruelty and adult violence. Bandura A. Social learning theory. Domestic violence against women: Systematic review of prevalence studies.

Archer J. Personality and Social Psychology Review. Background paper for WHO expert meeting May 2—3, Wathen C, Macmillan H. PTSD Symptoms in young children exposed to intimate partner violence. Violence Against Women. Osofsky JD. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review. Renner L, Slack K.

Subtypes of exposure to intimate partner violence within a Canadian child welfare sample: associated risks and child maladjustment. Clinical Psychology Review. Intergenerational transmission of maternal childhood maltreatment exposure: Implications for fetal brain development.

Gonzalez A. The impact of childhood maltreatment on biological systems: Implications for clinical interventions. The victimization of children and youth: A comprehensive, national survey. Adams CJ. Bringing peace home: a feminist philosophical perspective on the abuse of women, children and animals.

Arkow P. The relationships between animal abuse and other forms of family violence. Firmani D. Helping preserve the human—animal bond. Animal Sheltering. The development of a screening questionnaire for childhood cruelty to animals. The Journal of Small Animal Practice. Widom CS. Childhood victimization: early adversity, later psychopathology. National Institute of Justice Journal. Boat BW. Abuse of children and abuse of animals: Using the links to inform child assessment and protection.

In FR Ascione, et al. Hutton JS. Animal abuse as a diagnostic approach in social work: A pilot study. Acute injury patterns of intimate partner violence victims. Trauma, Violence Abuse. Selective battering of the family pet. Flynn CP. Violence against Women. Why family professionals can no longer ignore violence toward animals.

Gullone E. An evaluation review of theories related to animal cruelty. Journal of Animal Ethics. R Lockwood, FR Ascione. Pet abuse by batterers as a means of coercing battered women into committing illegal acts. Journal of Emotional Abuse. Animal abuse and family violence.

West Lafayette, Purdue University Press. Cummings EM. Coping with background anger in early childhood. Child Development. Journal of Family Psychology. Margolin G, Gordis EB. The effects of family and community violence on children. Annual Review of Psychology. Maughan A, Cicchetti D. Thompson KI, Gullone E. Psychological mechanisms of aggression.

Aggression: Theoretical and empirical reviews. Social learning theory of aggression. Journal of Communication. Anderson CA, Huesmann lR. Animal Cruelty, antisocial behavior and aggression: More than a link. Palgrave Macmillan.

Community violence exposure, social cognition, and aggression among urban elementary school children. Patterns of adjustment among children of battered women. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Developmental Psychology. Edleson JL. Children who witness domestic violence: a review of empirical literature. Interparental conflict and child adjustment: testing the mediational role of appraisals in the cognitive—contextual framework.

Kalmuss D. The intergenerational transmission of marital aggression. Journal of Marriage and the Family. Animal abuse in childhood and later support for interpersonal violence in families.

American Journal of Preventative Medicine. A handbook for child protection, domestic violence and animal protection agencies. Alameda, CA: Latham Foundation. Zoophilia in young sexual abusers.

The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry. Young sexual abusers: a descriptive study of a UK sample of children showing sexually harmful behaviors. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology. Risky families: Family social environments and the mental and physical health of offspring. Rigdon JD, Tapia F. Journal of Operational Psychiatry. Boat B. Connections among adverse childhood experiences, exposure to animal cruelty and toxic stress: What do professionals need to consider? Child Abuse Neglect.

Journal of Psychiatric Research. Comprehensive Psychiatry. Gullone E, Robertson N. The relationship between bullying and animal abuse in adolescents: The importance of witnessing animal abuse. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. Bullying and animal abuse: Is there a connection? Childhood and adolescent characteristics of pedophiles and rapists. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. Developmental animal cruelty and its correlates in sexual homicide offenders and sex offenders.

The link between animal abuse and human violence. Itzin C. Child Sexual Abuse Inventory scores for inpatient psychiatric boys: An exploratory study. Journal of Child Sexual Abus. Murderers who rape and mutilate. Wright J, Hensley C.

From animal cruelty to serial murder: Applying the graduation hypothesis. Childhood cruelty to animals and subsequent violence against humans. Childhood cruelty toward animals among criminals and noncriminals. Human Relations. McPhedran S. Animal abuse, family violence, and child wellbeing: A review. Risk factors in school shootings. Cruelty to animals and violence to people. Domestic violence and the abuse of pets: Researching the link and its implications in Ireland.

Fear, guilt, and grief: Harm to pets and the emotional abuse of a woman. Simmons C, Lehmann P. Exploring the link between pet abuse and controlling behaviors in violence relationships. Adams C, J Donovan. Form of emotional blackmail: Animal abuse as a risk factor for DV. Brantley AC. The use of animal cruelty evidence in dangerousness assessments by law enforcement.

Walters GD. Childhood animal cruelty methods and their link to adult interpersonal violence. Farrington DP. Childhood aggression and adult violence: Early precursors and later life outcomes. In DJ Peplar et al. The development and treatment of childhood aggression. Loeber R, Hay D. Key issues in the development of aggression and violence from childhood to early adulthood.

Examining the links between animal abuse and human violence. Crime, Law and Social Change. Human aggression. Children who are cruel to animals: A revisit. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.

Developmental origins of aggression. Frick PJ, Viding E. Antisocial behavior from a developmental psychopathology perspective. Rutter M. Commentary: Causal processes leading to antisocial behavior. Childhood cruelty to animals and later aggression against people: A review. Gullone E, Clarke J. Human animal interactions: The Australian Perspective. In F Ascione editor. Frick PJ, Dickens C. Current perspectives on conduct disorder. Current Psychiatry Reports. Psychopathy and conduct problems in children.

Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Animal cruelty as an indicator of family trauma: Using adverse childhood experiences to look beyond child abuse and domestic violence. Khan R, Cookie, DJ. Developmental experiences of child sexual abusers and rapists. Cleckley H. The mask of sanity. MO: Mosby. Hare RD. Without conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us.