Animal cruelty, antisocial behaviour and aggression : more than a link / Eleonora Gullone.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gullone, Eleonora.

Series:

Palgrave Macmillan animal ethics series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Animal welfare--Psychological aspects.

Animal welfare.

Antisocial personality disorders.

Aggressiveness.

Psychological aspects.

Physical Description:

xix, 182 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Summary:

Through comprehensive reviews of theory and research related to animal cruelty, antisocial behaviour and aggression, Gullone clearly demonstrates that animal cruelty behaviours are another form of antisocial behaviour, which appear right alongside human aggression and violence, as well as other crimes including non-violent crimes. Almost without exception, the perpetrators of animal cruelty crimes are the same individuals who carry out a host of other antisocial crimes or misdemeanors including assault, partner and child abuse, and bullying. For those whose criminal careers begin in childhood (i.e. the early starters), without intervention, it is highly likely that their antisocial activities will continue into their adult years, in most cases increasing in severity. It is therefore time to begin treating animal cruelty crimes more seriously, to prevent further harm not only against the innocent animals who will otherwise become the victims of these individuals but also against potential human victims. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction: The Aims of This Book 1

2 Historical and Current Conceptualizations of Animal Cruelty 5

Co-occurrence between animal cruelty and antisocial behaviour 7

The evolution of current thinking 8

The Child Behavior Checklist 10

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders 10

Defining animal cruelty 11

Animal cruelty motivations 13

Chapter summary 15

3 Conceptualizations of Antisocial Behaviour 16

From behaviours to individuals 17

From aggressive behaviours to antisocial behaviours 17

Toward a more developmentally-oriented focus 17

A developmental psychopathology approach 18

Defining antisocial behaviour 18

Defining aggression 19

The importance of the intent requirement 20

Aggression dimensions 21

Chapter summary 24

4 The Development of Antisocial Behaviour 25

Key issues and considerations 25

Development 26

Infancy and toddlerhood 26

Childhood 27

Child-onset antisocial behaviour 28

Adolescence 30

Adolescent-onset antisocial behaviour 30

Child versus adolescent-onset of antisocial behaviour 31

Adulthood 33

Prevalence 34

Stability 35

Chapter summary 37

5 Theoretical Accounts of Aggressive Behaviour and Animal Cruelty 39

Theoretical accounts of aggressive behaviour 39

Cognitive neo-association theory 40

Social cognitive models 40

General Aggression Model (GAM) 41

Theoretical accounts of animal cruelty 42

Antisocial behaviour risk factors 42

Chapter summary 43

6 Biological and Individual Difference Risk Factors 45

Biological risk factors 45

Sex differences 46

Baseline levels of arousal 47

Individual difference risk factors 48

Temperament 48

Personality 50

Psychopathy and Callous-Unemotional traits 51

Psychopathy in non-adult populations 54

Chapter summary 56

7 Environmental Risk Factors 58

Socioeconomic status 58

Provocation 59

Opportunity 59

Aggressive cues and exposure to violence 60

Family and parenting factors 62

Attachment relationships 64

Parenting practices 67

Parental warmth 67

Coercive and inconsistent parenting practices 68

Physical punishment 69

Direct and indirect abuse effects 71

Peer relationships 74

Chapter summary 75

8 Emotional and Cognitive Processes 78

Emotion processes 78

Emotion regulation 78

Cognitive factors and information processing 80

Knowledge structures 80

Schemas and scripts 81

Attributional, perception, and expectation biases 82

Accessibility of aggressive responses 83

Self-efficacy 84

Moral disengagement 85

Attitudes and beliefs 88

Chapter summary 89

9 Aetiological Accounts of Animal Cruelty 91

Theoretical models of animal cruelty 91

The Violence Graduation Hypothesis 91

The Deviance Generalization Hypothesis 98

Conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and psychopathy 99

Criminal behaviour and animal cruelty 101

Federal Bureau of Investigation work 105

Family violence and animal cruelty 109

Bullying and animal cruelty in youth 111

Risk factors for the development of animal cruelty 113

Sex differences 115

Age differences 116

Witnessing of violence, and animal cruelty 117

Family and parenting experiences 119

Displacement of aggression 123

Cognitive errors, aggressive cues, and exposure to violence 124

Empathy and emotion regulation 125

Chapter summary 127

10 Conclusions and Future Directions 129

The development of animal cruelty behaviour 129

Cross-cultural research 130

An action agenda 134

Proposed strategies for change 135

Concluding comments 137

Chapter summary 137.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230239234

0230239234

OCLC:

795175366