Identifying Factors that Lead to Animal Cruelty
Animal cruelty is a widespread problem in the United States. Many believe animal cruelty results from a person’s exposure to certain events in childhood, such as having witnessed animal cruelty or having been physically punished. Additional research associates animal cruelty with violence toward humans. Despite growing recognition that this is a serious social issue, there has been no systematic, nationally representative scientific study of cruelty to animals in relation to demographic, mental health and health factors. Researchers analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults to examine the potential association among psychiatric disorders and animal cruelty.
The lifetime prevalence of animal cruelty in U.S. adults was 1.8 percent. Adverse childhood experiences, such as being the victim of verbal or sexual abuse or living in a household where a parent or other adult has been in prison, were significantly associated with cruelty to animals. Demographically, men, African Americans, Native Americans, Asians Americans, persons with lower income and education levels and adults living in the western region of the United States reported comparatively high levels of cruelty to animals, whereas Hispanics reported comparatively low levels of such behavior. Researchers determined that cruelty to animals is more prevalent in young, poor men with family histories of antisocial behavior during childhood obsessive-compulsive and histrionic personality disorders;; and pathological gambling in adulthood. Knowing the factors that lead people to animal cruelty will help policymakers and animal advocates make decisions regarding animal-cruelty laws and solutions.
These results are from study #D09MS-008, Dr. Michael G. Vaughn, St. Louis University
Posted by on August 18, 2011.
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