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Book Review
Frank Ascione and Phil Arkow (Eds.)
Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse:
Linking the Circles of Compassion for Prevention and
Intervention
West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 1999.
Geertrui Cazaux 1
University of Gent, Belgium
“He who is cruel to animals become [sic] hard also in his
dealings with men….” and “Tender feelings toward dumb animals
develop humane feelings toward mankind,” Kant stated two
centuries ago, repeating thoughts Thomas Aquinas had put forward
in the thirteenth century.
Many of the first nonhuman animal protection organizations
implicitly or explicitly referred to this connection. The
American Humane Association for example, has been stating since
1877 that its goal is to protect animals and children. Also, the
development of animal welfare legislation was in many countries
inspired by the potential link between nonhuman animal abuse and
violence among humans.
Seemingly a self_evident statement, supported by an abundance of
anecdotal “evidence,” this link remained largely uninvestigated
for a large part of the twentieth century. This has changed,
however, during the last decades. The number of publications on
the cruelty link has increased rapidly, and scientific
investigations into the matter have become a major research
topic in the research domain on human_animal relations. Society
& Animals devoted a theme issue to animal cruelty in 1997 (Vol.
5, No. 3) containing several contributions on this topic. In
1998, Purdue University Press published an anthology, Cruelty to
Animals and Interpersonal Violence, collecting reprints of all
the major articles on the matter published to date (Lockwood &
Ascione, Eds.).
Two Perspectives
The line of investigation in these studies is twofold. On one
hand, the supposed link between animal abuse and other
expressions of family violence such as child abuse and abuse of
women is examined. Different forms of violent behavior with
different categories of victims often go hand in hand. Detecting
the occurrence of animal abuse can lead to the detection of
other forms of interpersonal violence. The occurrence of animal
abuse can be an indication that other family members of the
perpetrator are also potential victims. This can help in the
prevention of other forms of interpersonal violence and vice
versa.
From another perspective, research into the cruelty link
examines the connection between animal abuse committed by
children or youngsters and the development of aggressive or
violent behavior at a later stage in life. It is stated that
children or youngsters committing acts of extreme violence
toward animals are more likely to develop aggressive and violent
behavior in their relations when they grow older. Animal abuse
in childhood is thus labeled an indicator of a possible future
violent or even criminal career and can be a signifier for
social agencies to intervene.
Ascione and Arkow's edited volume deals predominantly with the
former line of investigation. A large part of the contributions
focuses on the links between animal abuse, domestic violence,
and child abuse in a family setting. Glancing through the book,
the large number of—often very short—contributions is
immediately strikingly apparent. It is no surprise then that
many of the contributions give a repetitive recital ~ad nauseam
of empirical data previously published and repeatedly state the
lack of co_operation between social and humane services. Over
and over, reference is made to the same publications from the
special issue of Society & Animals (1997) or to publications
covered in the Lockwood and Ascione anthology (1998).
Thoughts on Violence
The book contains no significant new empirical scientific
material on the link between domestic violence, child abuse, and
animal abuse. The general tone is of a more descriptive nature,
giving an overview of how different organizations working in the
field have dealt with these issues so far. Obvious recurrent
themes then are the lack of empirical data establishing the
link—hence the demand for further research—and the need for
coalition_building between different organizations dealing with
one or another aspect of the link. Much attention, however, also
is paid to the legislative and legal context of these matters
and the role veterinarians can or should play in recognizing and
reporting animal abuse. The last section of the book deals with
initiatives including animal_assisted therapy as a way to break
the cycle of violence.
Stressing its links with other expressions of interpersonal
violence makes, for many, the importance of detecting and
preventing animal abuse a more justifiable and legitimate field
of action and intervention. In the introduction to “Overall
Growth of the Animal,” Lockwood states the following:
Ironically, some animal rights advocates see giving too much
attention to the connections between violence against animals
and humans as undermining efforts to view animal abuse as an
evil that stands alone, regardless of the implications for the
treatment of people. (p. 5)
Is this really so ironic? The anthropocentric overtone
underlying research on the cruelty link (preventing and
detecting animal abuse is important because it can be a major
signifier of other human victimization's) is exactly the kind of
justification animal rights advocates have tried to transcend in
establishing the moral significance of animals in their own
right.
In line with this remark, the lack of attention to the
definitional aspects of animal abuse -- except for Rowan's
typology (pp. 328_334) -- and its unsystematic interpretation
throughout the different contributions is conspicuous and
reflects the general lack of reflexivity in publications on
definititional matters. For example, the institutionalized
expressions of animal abuse receive only sporadic attention. If
the underlying idea about the cruelty link is the
objectification of living beings—women, children, animals—why do
these studies restrict their scope to the occurrence of abuse
and violence in the domestic scene, perpetrated by individuals,
and restricted to socially unacceptable forms of abuse? Is there
some possibility that some sort of cruelty link also occurs with
people and animals incorporated in larger, institutionalized
systems of abuse—slaughterhouse employees, or men and women
working in the sex industry?
The main basis of these industries' existence often relies on
the objectification of living creatures who are turned into
“chunks of meat,” objects of experiment, “cute pussies,” or
hunting trophies. In restricting their scope to just these
classic instances of animal abuse (companion animals in a
domestic scene), I feel that these investigations make the same
mistake as did those at the beginning of the animal protection
movement in the nineteenth century. Their scope is narrowed down
to the classic animal protection issues, leaving the bigger
framework of animal exploitation—often in an institutionalized
context—out of the picture. Agreeably, but from a broader
non_anthropocentric perspective, one can indeed state that the
cruelty link requires much more research and investigation.
References
Lockwood, R. & Ascione, F. R. (Eds.). (1998). Cruelty to animals
and interpersonal violence: Readings in research and
application. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press
Arluke, A. & Lockwood, R. (Guest Eds.). (1997). Special theme
issue: Animal cruelty. Society & Animals, 5(3).
Note
1 Correspondence should be sent to Geertrui Cazaux, University
of Gent, Faculty of Law, Universiteitstraat 4, B_9000 Gent,
Belgium. E_mail: Geertrui.Cazaux@rug.ac.be
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