Childhood animal cruelty motives and their relationship to recurrent adult interpersonal crimes

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.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Ketron, Joseph

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hensley, Christopher
• McGuffee, Karen; Policastro, Christina
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Violence -- Psychological aspects
• Violence -- Forecasting
• Children and animals

Licence

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/531

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1681