The Relationship between Animal Cruelty, Delinquency, and Attitudes toward the Treatment of Animals

Bill C. Henry Department of Psychology
Metropolitan State College of Denver

Previous research has identified a relationship between acts of cruelty to animals other than humans and involvement in other forms of antisocial behavior. The current study sought to extend these findings by examining this relationship among a sample of college students using a self-report delinquency methodology. In addition, the current study explored the relationship between a history of observing or engaging in acts of animal cruelty and attitudes of sensitivity/concern regarding the treatment of nonhuman animals. College students (169) enrolled in an Introduction to Psychology course comprised the sample. Results indicated that those participants who observed acts of animal cruelty and those who participated in acts of animal cruelty had higher scores on a self-report delinquency scale than did those who had never observed or participated in acts of animal cruelty. Observation of acts of animal cruelty interacted with sex to predict attitudes toward the treatment of animals. Observation of animal cruelty and participation in animal cruelty affected delinquency scores independently. The current study discusses implications and directions for future research.

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Moral Disengagement and Attitudes about Violence toward Animals

Scott Vollum , Jacqueline Buffington-Vollum, Dennis R. Longmir
Sam Houston State University

Despite a growing body of evidence linking nonhuman animal cruelty to violence toward humans and increasing knowledge of the pain and suffering that animals experience at the hands of humans, research on violence toward animals is relatively sparse. This study examines public attitudes about violence against animals and the criminal justice response to such acts. The study included, as part of a statewide survey, questions of Texas residents gauging the perceived severity of numerous violent acts against nonhuman animals as well as the preferred criminal justice response. The paper presents descriptive analyses and employs OLS Regression to assess the relationship between Bandura’s (1990, 1999) mechanisms of moral disengagement and violence toward animals. The paper discusses implications for future research on animal cruelty and animal abuse.

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Animals, Women and Weapons: Blurred Sexual Boundaries in the Discourse of Sport Hunting

Linda Kalof , Amy Fitzgerald, and Lori Baralt

The furor and public outrage surrounding the release of a fictionalized video in which naked women are hunted down and shot with paintball guns (“Hunting for Bambi”) inspired this paper. Arguing that distressing representations of hunting as a sexually charged activity are resilient popular culture images, this paper examines the theoretical framework that links hunting with sex and women with animals and the empirical evidence of such linkages in the hunting discourse of a popular newsstand periodical. Contemporary feminist theory often connects hunting with sex and women with animals. This paper details clear evidence of the juxtaposition of hunting, sex, women, and animals in the photographs, narratives, and advertisements of a random sampling of Traditional Bowhunter magazines (1992-2003). Particularly prominent in the magazines’ hunting discourse is the sexualization of animals, women, and weapons, as if the three are interchangeable sexual bodies in narratives of traditional masculinity. This paper concludes that moral outrage at the degradation of women might be targeted best at widely read newsstand periodicals that serve as popular culture precursors to videos that celebrate hunting naked women.

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What is the Red Knot Worth?: Valuing Human/Avian Interaction

Jeffrey Karnicky

Approximately at the turn of the nineteenth century, the visual encounter between humans and birds, which has been going on since both forms of life have existed, began to solidify into a hobby, into something that a middle-class citizen of American might spend a morning doing. Certain technologies--optics (binoculars), field guides, and later, automobiles--helped to enable this pursuit. In the twentieth century, bird watching became an immense industry. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, one report claims that in America “an estimated 70.4 million people now go out-of-doors to watch birds one or more times per year” (Cordell & Herbert, 2003, p. 3). Much has been written on how and why bird watching has grown in popularity during the last 150 years or so. This essay will look instead at the effects produced by the nearly infinite acts of looking inherent to a hobby that has been described as one of “Americans’ most-favored [outdoor] activities” (Cordell & Herbert, p. 3)

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