{"id":{"repo_id":"utc","oai_identifier":"oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1681"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/utc/oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1681","repository":{"repo_id":"utc","name":"University of Tennessee - Chattanooga","base_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Childhood animal cruelty motives and their relationship to recurrent adult interpersonal crimes","abstract":"Although research investigating the link between childhood animal cruelty and adult interpersonal violence dates back to the early 1960s, few scholars have examined the predictive ability of childhood animal cruelty motives and their relationship to later violence toward humans. Based on a sample of 257 male inmates, the present study examines the relationship between four retrospectively identified motives for childhood animal cruelty and later adult interpersonal violence. Almost half of the inmates reported engaging in childhood animal cruelty for fun. Over one-third of the respondents reported committing acts of childhood animal cruelty out of anger. Approximately 20% of the inmates reported that they carried out acts of cruelty because of hate for the animal, whereas just over 40% cited imitation as their primary motive for animal abuse. Regression analyses revealed that recurrent childhood animal cruelty was the only statistically significant variable for predicting later adult interpersonal violence.","abstract_html":"Although research investigating the link between childhood animal cruelty and adult interpersonal violence dates back to the early 1960s, few scholars have examined the predictive ability of childhood animal cruelty motives and their relationship to later violence toward humans. Based on a sample of 257 male inmates, the present study examines the relationship between four retrospectively identified motives for childhood animal cruelty and later adult interpersonal violence. Almost half of the inmates reported engaging in childhood animal cruelty for fun. Over one-third of the respondents reported committing acts of childhood animal cruelty out of anger. Approximately 20% of the inmates reported that they carried out acts of cruelty because of hate for the animal, whereas just over 40% cited imitation as their primary motive for animal abuse. Regression analyses revealed that recurrent childhood animal cruelty was the only statistically significant variable for predicting later adult interpersonal violence.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ketron, Joseph"],"institution":"University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Hensley, Christopher","McGuffee, Karen; Policastro, Christina","College of Arts and Sciences"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":null,"date_issued":"","date_published":null,"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:46:51Z","subjects":["Violence -- Psychological aspects","Violence -- Forecasting","Children and animals"],"languages":["English","eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/531","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Hensley, Christopher","McGuffee, Karen; Policastro, Christina","College of Arts and Sciences"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ketron, Joseph"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2017-12-01T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Masters theses","Text"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Violence -- Psychological aspects","Violence -- Forecasting","Children and animals"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/531"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Dept. of Criminal Justice and Legal Assistant Studies","M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Although research investigating the link between childhood animal cruelty and adult interpersonal violence dates back to the early 1960s, few scholars have examined the predictive ability of childhood animal cruelty motives and their relationship to later violence toward humans. Based on a sample of 257 male inmates, the present study examines the relationship between four retrospectively identified motives for childhood animal cruelty and later adult interpersonal violence. Almost half of the inmates reported engaging in childhood animal cruelty for fun. Over one-third of the respondents reported committing acts of childhood animal cruelty out of anger. Approximately 20% of the inmates reported that they carried out acts of cruelty because of hate for the animal, whereas just over 40% cited imitation as their primary motive for animal abuse. Regression analyses revealed that recurrent childhood animal cruelty was the only statistically significant variable for predicting later adult interpersonal violence."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Childhood animal cruelty motives and their relationship to recurrent adult interpersonal crimes"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Hensley, Christopher","McGuffee, Karen; Policastro, Christina","College of Arts and Sciences"],"dc:creator":["Ketron, Joseph"],"dc:date":["2017-12-01T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["Dept. of Criminal Justice and Legal Assistant Studies","M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science."],"dc:description.abstract":["Although research investigating the link between childhood animal cruelty and adult interpersonal violence dates back to the early 1960s, few scholars have examined the predictive ability of childhood animal cruelty motives and their relationship to later violence toward humans. Based on a sample of 257 male inmates, the present study examines the relationship between four retrospectively identified motives for childhood animal cruelty and later adult interpersonal violence. Almost half of the inmates reported engaging in childhood animal cruelty for fun. Over one-third of the respondents reported committing acts of childhood animal cruelty out of anger. Approximately 20% of the inmates reported that they carried out acts of cruelty because of hate for the animal, whereas just over 40% cited imitation as their primary motive for animal abuse. Regression analyses revealed that recurrent childhood animal cruelty was the only statistically significant variable for predicting later adult interpersonal violence."],"dc:identifier":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/531"],"dc:language":["English","eng"],"dc:publisher":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"],"dc:relation":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"],"dc:rights":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"dc:subject":["Violence -- Psychological aspects","Violence -- Forecasting","Children and animals"],"dc:title":["Childhood animal cruelty motives and their relationship to recurrent adult interpersonal crimes"],"dc:type":["Masters theses","Text"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:46:51Z"}