Committee Chair

Hensley, Christopher

Committee Member

McGuffee, Karen; Policastro, Christina

Department

Dept. of Criminal Justice and Legal Assistant Studies

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

In the early 1960s, researchers began to examine the potential link between childhood animal cruelty and future interpersonal violence. Findings since then have been inconsistent in establishing a relationship between the two. This may be due to researchers failing to measure the recurrency of childhood animal abuse and the recurrency of later violent acts committed in adulthood. The current study, using data from 257 inmates at a medium-security prison in a Southern state, is a replication of research conducted by Tallichet and Hensley (2004) and Hensley, Tallichet, and Dutkiewicz (2009), which examined this recurrency issue. The only statistically significant predictor of recurrent adult interpersonal violence in this study was recurrent childhood animal cruelty. Inmates who engaged in recurrent childhood animal cruelty were more likely to commit recurrent adult interpersonal violence. Respondents’ race, education, and childhood residence were not significant predictors of the outcome variable.

Acknowledgments

I would like to sincerely thank Dr. Chris Hensley, the chair of my thesis, for helping me through the research and editing processes of my thesis. He also guided me through my education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as my undergraduate advisor and influenced me to continue my education in the UTC’s Master’s Program. Without his guidance, I would not have attended the graduate school at UTC. I would also like to thank Professor Karen McGuffee and Dr. Christina Policastro, members of my thesis committee, who gave me essential advice and suggestions.

Degree

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.

Date

8-2016

Subject

Violence in children; Animal welfare -- Psychological aspects; Children and animals; Conduct disorders in children -- Risk factors; Human-animal relationships

Keyword

Recurrent; Childhood; Animal; Cruelty; Interpersonal; Violence

Discipline

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

vii, 30 leaves

Language

English

Rights

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

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Download

Share

COinS