Animal Abuse and Its Connection With Child Abuse, Research Paper Example

Claim: Individuals who actively engage in animal abuse or posses a history or record of animal abuse are perceived to apply the same character to children.

Response to Questions

I chose the topic because of the increasing reported cases of abuse to vulnerable groups of the society including animals and children. I have narrowed down the topic into a substantial form by concentrating on the connection between animal abuse and child abuse.

Besides me, another intended audience of the topic or study is the community as a whole. The main challenge in researching the topic is the varying perceptions, outcomes and recommendations of earlier related studies and research findings. I intend to overcome these challenges by exploring a variety of sources to come up with reliable and accurate information.

Research strategies used include secondary data collection and practical observation of day to day life in the society. The most useful sources will be varied findings and outcomes from related topics and studies, especially those carried out earlier including their recommendations.

Facts

Treating animals in a cruel manner is not just a mere personality flaw indicator but rather it is in indication of an elevated level of mental disturbance. Research findings from psychology and criminology have indicated that individuals who engage in animal abuse go a milestone to exercise the same behaviors on the vulnerable groups in the society such as children and women or the hand capped and the elderly. Therefore the relationship between animal abuse and children abuse lies in the fact that both the children and animals are classified among the most vulnerable groups to abuse in the society.

History reveals the fact that majority of people who committed interpersonal violence after they abused the animals for instance, when one time the cat left the foot prints on the car of Mr. Randy Roth, he got the cat and bound it to the driveshaft of its own car with the duct tape. As the car was started the cat very first dismembered and its screams were muffled by the sounds of the engine. Such abuse did not stop their but continued for quite some time until now Roth later murdered his wife by drowning her near Bellevue.  Another person by the name Richard Davis is reported to set fire to cats and used the dogs as the target practice as a child. Richard later he was convicted of murdering 12-yaer old Polly Klaus after kid napping her from her Petaluma, A home.   So from the above two incidences it is evident that individual who abuse animals in any way has connection of abusing the vulnerable in the society where the children are the most vulnerable.

This violence to animals can be linked with a statement which states that “Abusing an animal is a way for a human to find power, joy, in addition to fulfillment through the torture of a victim they know cannot defend itself”

Thus if we rephrase the above statement it can mean that child abuse is a way for human to find power, joy, fulfillment through the torture of a victim they know cannot defend it self.

So it is beyond no reasonable doubt that those people who abuse and crueler treated animals will do the same to the fellow humans who will prove to be vulnerable or who will not defend themselves due to old age, sickness of weakness or being a child.

According to Massachusetts society for the prevention of cruelty to Animals (SPCA) report in 1997 shows that animal abusers are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against people and only four times likely to commit crimes related to property than are individuals without a history of abusing animals. To support those claims many studies in sociology, criminology, sociology have demonstrated that those how behave violently frequently have childhood and adolescent histories of serious animal cruelty. To further reinforce the claim that really animal abusers also end up committing the same cruel acts to humanity, FBI report of 1970s shows that, the analysis of the serial killers suggested that most of them had killed and tortured animals when they were children. More the report claimed that consistent patterns of animal’s cruelty among the perpetuators of more common forms of violence like child abuse, spouse abuse, and elder abuse. In fact it can be concluded that the animal cruelty is the best diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder (Munro. 1985, 3-7).

From more literature and the reports collected it is seen that the line separating the animal abusers from those individuals who will commit abuse to people is much finer than many people may consider. Individual abuse animals for the same reason they abuse people. Some people will stop at animals but evidence has proved beyond no reasonable doubt that many will continue to commit such violent crimes to people and this is worth noting and paying attention to.

Virtually serious violent offenders have an history of abusing animals in their past, and since  it is difficult to know which animal abuser is going to commit or continue to commit violent crimes to humanity, all the  offenders must be taken  that seriously. Referring to the study by the ‘Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA)’, individuals who engage in abusing of animals are five times more likely to apply the same to other vulnerable groups like children and women compared to individuals without animal abuse history.  For instance, a survey carried out on psychiatric patients who were found to repeatedly abuse cats and dogs indicated that they had an elevated aggression level towards children and other vulnerable groups.

One FBI supervisor actually said that animal cruelty should not be locked to as harmless venting of emotions in a healthy individual but is should serve as a warning sign and should be treated seriously as it is. It is a clan indicator of issues in psychology that the person can commit crimes to people given a chance (Frank & Phil, 2001, 50-54).

Experience shows that the children who abuse a pet quit often acts out of the violence they experienced or witnessed at home. It is believed that they act in such manner so as to control themselves.

Actually animal violence and cruelty can be associated with power and control. When the person fells powerless they will tend to develop a sense of self respect by dominating over another person or animal. So, animal abusers will always want to console themselves by abusing the vulnerable in the society if they fail to get the animal to dominate over by cruelly handling it. It is common sense to conclude that those people who abuse animals for no good reason have no empathy and just see the world as unfair to them.

More history shows that Patrick Sherrill who once killed14 coworker in a post office and later committed suicide by shooting himself had a history of stealing local pets and allowed his dogs to mutilate them. Also Brender Spencer who opened fire at San Diego school killing two children and injuring nine others had a history of repeatedly abusing pet and dogs by setting their tails on fire. Finally just to mention a few, those people associated with killing nor committing acts of violence to animals also ended up committing more  serious crimes to fellow humans especially the vulnerable in the society.

From the facts generated, it is evident to clearly say that animal abuses have a connection with child abuse .and it can be proposed that acts of violence to animals may be good indicators of mental disorder so any body known to have abused animals should be looked at as a potential person who can commit acts of cruelty to children. More learning about animal cruelty/ interpersonal violence connection is very crucial for community members and law enforcement bodies.

When the FBI sergeant was interview on the history of the serial killers in connection to animal abuse he said that almost all of them had connection of mistreating animals; in fact he said “you should ask how many have not committed crimes”.

Actually the body of evidence that is linking the animal abuse and human violence is convincing and growing at a high rate. In many studies a high incidence of abusing animals is found in the childhood histories of violent criminals, and is connected to child abuse and domestic violence. Battering of pets is a serious component of domestic violence and forms the basis indicating of other social problems and acts of interpersonal abuse.

Further still on the topic, it is sad that even children who abuse animals will graduate so soon to be killers of their fellow classmates. Evidence from the columbine shooting reveals that the boys who abused animals by mutilating then and torturing them did not even wait until adulthood but quickly they graduated from abusing animals to killing their classmates as teenagers. The same trend openly existed among the killings related to Kip Kinkel, 15, of Oregon city; Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, of Jonesboro Arkansas town; and Luke Woodham, 16, of Pearl at Mississippi. This fast graduation of the kids from animal abusers to fellow human abusers should click a point in ones mind of the links of animal abuse and abuse of the vulnerable like children and the less privileged in the society (Loar, 1999, 121).

With the increased awareness we can openly see that there is an awful connection between cruelty towards animals and violent crimes towards humans later in life. The human society of the united states record that both researchers and FBI and other law enforcement agencies nationwide have linked animal cruelty to domestic violence, serial killings, and the recent rash of killings by school-age children, this is  according to Dr. Randall Lockwood, vice president of Training Initiatives for The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

There is no secret especially with today’s enlightenment that the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, David Berkowitz and Teddy Bundy all enjoyed and delighted in torturing and cruelly handling animals before they moved on to human torture. Again it is saddening and horrifying that many of the identified serial killers also suffered some kind of abuse as children. According to the American human association records that out of the 57 families being treated for incidences of child abuse 88% also did abuse animals. Two thirds of the cases were incidences where the parents are the ones who abused by killing or injuring the animal to control the child and one third were incidences where the children abused animals as scapegoats for their anger (George, 1998, 1-31).

Research methodology

This section outlines important procedures along with potential methods which are at the reach of researcher in the course of arriving at the objectives of the research according to the claim of the argument. It identifies location, research procedures as well as analysis plan that were addressed at the time of the study in consideration of this specific research. The starting point of this research was a clear understanding of the topic of research.

The topic of the research just as a sum up is to the claim that animal abuse is linked connected to child abuse. It is important to note here that this research was mainly based on the review of past work done in this subject.

The method for this research that was therefore preferred was secondary research. Secondary research in this case involved collection of vital statistics from existing sources. In due course therefore, it allowed for saving on time used in getting the information needed for a research. The limitation discovered with secondary research was that it was difficult to measure the relevancy of the information recorded. Mostly the information collected from secondary research is used in the preparation of literature review of the research. Regarding the current research study, the main sources of secondary data are;

• Previous researches papers on the subjects
• Relevant journals and books especially those touching on animal and child abuse
• Relevant internet sources
• Other related materials as the researcher finds appropriate to use.

Data obtained from these secondary sources will be utilized mainly in the development of the literature part of the study. This will help reinforce a critical understanding of the research problem and core characteristics of the study phenomenon.

Research Validity and Reliability

The current research is vey argumentative in nature and all research questions are related to the core characteristics of the research phenomenon as discussed in the literature review. The process of data collection and subsequent analysis shall therefore be accurate so as to ensure that highest levels of validity are realized. It is however important to note that there are several aspects of research validity which influence reliability of research findings.

Limitations of the research

Limitations are ever at hand in all research work and they are responsible for  tarnishing results of research. Consequently, some limitations were associated with this particular research. In this research, the greatest source of limitation was associated with some chunks or sources of secondary research. This is because of the fact that these sources are not valid or they are not updated therefore the data that is attained from these sources might affect the entire results of the research. Therefore, the researcher took utmost care about all these constraints and tried to minimize them.

Findings and discussions

Anthropologist Margret mead has reported that that “one of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child is to kill or torture an animal and get away with it” for the last 20 years the connection between violence against animals and violence against human being was not recognized . But recent researches by several bodies argue that those people who abuse animals will rarely stop there (Ascione & Arkow, 1999, 90).

Many bodies like the child social service agencies, mental health professionals and educator s recognizes that animal abuse is antisocial and lacks empathy. Thus it is a reliable indicator and predictor sign of violence against people when the young abuser grows up to be an adult. Further those bodies conclude that the children learn about abuse by being the victims themselves thus they fail to develop empathy and thus they fail to realize the pain their victims suffer (Frank, 2001, 10-13) When the children begin to act their abuse horrors they will target the animals first and when they become adults they will target the most vulnerable in the society like children, elderly and partners.

It is blatant truth that those people who abuse animals lack the most crucial human value empathy. Since they lack empathy they will tend to behave like animals infringing pain to the victims without caring. Ideally without empathy there is no humanity.

Who can stand to deny the claim that animal abusers go an extra step to abuse the vulnerable in the society? The evidences and facts provided are enough to make such a conclusion that there is a clear connection between animal abusers and the human abusers.

Conclusion

Finally this essay has successively argued about the relationship between animal abuse and the abuse of the vulnerable in the society where children are the target. Again it has been clearly proved by evidence that those people who tortured animals for no good reasons the later in life committed the same crimes of torture to the vulnerable humans in the society. Animal abuse is associated with lack of empathy which is the most vital human value and thus those people who abuse animals will finally abuse the vulnerable because they lack the sense sanctity of human life and its dignity.

Warrant

Animal abuse is not a qualification or an evidence to accuse an individual against child abuse but rather an indication of likelihood of such an individual to engage in child abuse. Though all those people who are associated with animal abuse should be handled with care for it is unpredictable who will commit crimes of tortured the vulnerable in the society. In fact they should be treated as potential abusers waiting for the chance to act.

Works cited

Frank R. Ascione,”animal abuse and youth violence” juvenile justice bulletin. u.s. department of justice, office of justice program, 2001.

George .H, “Another Weapon for Combating Family Violence: Prevention of Animal Abuse.” Animal Law. Volume 4, pp. 1-31. 1998.

Frank R. Ascione & Phil Arkow 2001”children abuse, domestic violence, and animal abuse”: linking animal abuse and child abuse.Volume3 pp.50-54. 2001.

American Humane Association, “Violence to Humans and Animals: >>www.americanhumane.org/children/factsheets/viol_link.htm<< Lacroix, ” 2001.

Ascione & Arkow, “Another Weapon for Combating Family Violence Prevention of Animal Abuse,” Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, & Animal Abuse. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1999.

The Humane Society of the United States, “Youth Violence and Animal Cruelty”) >> www.hsus.org/current/teen_cases.html<<. June 22, 2001.

Loar .K. S, “Why Human Service Professionals Should Pay Attention to Cases Involving Cruelty to Animals,” in Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse, supra, note 1 at 121. 1999.

Munro. P, “The Battered Pet: Signs and Symptoms,” in Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse, supra, note 1 at 199. 1985.