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

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.

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

12-2017

Subject

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

Keyword

Animal cruelty; Interpersonal violence; Motives

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

viii, 39 leaves

Language

English

Rights

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

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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