Evidence is mounting that animal abuse, frequently embedded in families scarred by domestic violence and child abuse and neglect, often predicts the potential for other violent acts. As early intervention is critical in the prevention and reduction of aggression, this book encourages researchers and professionals to recognize animal abuse as a significant problem and a human public-health issue that should be included as a curriculum topic in training. The book is an interdisciplinary source book of original essays that examines the relations between animal maltreatment and human interpersonal violence, expands the scope of research in this growing area, and provides practical assessment and documentation strategies to help professionals confronting violence do their jobs better by attending to these connections. As an outgrowth of the Latham Foundation's 1995 training manual, Breaking the Cycles of Violence, this book is a historic step in helping professionals from these disciplines, as well as the general public, recognize the cyclical and insidious nature of family violence and provides training in recognizing peripheral forms of family violence outside a family's immediate purview. It encourages cross-disciplinary prevention and intervention strategies with an ultimate goal of reducing the levels of violence which is such a great societal and cultural concern today. This book brings together, for the first time, all of the leaders in this emerging field. They examine contemporary research and programmatic issues, encourage cross-disciplinary interactions, and describe innovative programs in the field today. Also included are vivid first-person accounts from survivors whose experiences included animal maltreatment among other forms of family violence. Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Abuse provides professional communities of psychologists and child welfare specialists with a deeper, higher, and more encompassing awareness and understanding of the crucial linking of caring for animals and children in human experience. The combination of careful research, documentation, and compelling narrative accounts are blended into a rich resource to help professionals, concerned citizens, and parents understand how the ethics of caring are not bounded by species.

Learn how animal cruelty is linked to family violence Experts find a disturbingly close relationship between animal abuse and family violence. Animal Abuse and Family Violence: Linkages, Research, and Implications for Professional Practice explores the difficult link between family violence and animal abuse in depth, explaining why the abuse occurs and offering practical treatment options. This concise yet comprehensive overview describes creative programs to foster prevention of cruelty to animals as well as nonviolence toward humans. New research and approaches for policy and practice are presented in detail, all in one easy-to-read volume. Animal Abuse and Family Violence: Linkages, Research, and Implications for Professional Practice works to fill the noticeable gap in the present literature about the connection between violence to family members and pets. This text provides practical suggestions for including animal cruelty as an important component for assessment and treatment in the education and training of mental health professionals. The book is extensively referenced. Topics discussed in Animal Abuse and Family Violence: Linkages, Research, and Implications for Professional Practice include: an overview of empirical literature linking family violence to cruelty of family pets short- and long-term effects of experiencing animal abuse and the impact on victims the prevalence within the Hispanic community of pet abuse and intimate partner violence animal cruelty disclosure in child welfare cases the collection of data and communication among agencies about animal cruelty at the state and federal level the positive impact of programs utilizing pet assisted therapy Animal Abuse and Family Violence: Linkages, Research, and Implications for Professional Practice is a valuable resource for clinical psychologists, counselors, social workers, educators, students, veterinarians, animal rights activists, mainstream media, and anyone interested in the prevention of animal abuse.

Many philosophers, including Aquinas, Locke, Schopenhauer and Kant, have assumed that there is a link between cruelty to animals and violence to people. This title examines the relationships between animal abuse and child abuse, the emotional development of the child, family violence, and serial murder.

Animal abuse as a predictor of abuse against humans has been documented extensively. Experts have explored alternatives to identify the early signs and stop the cycle. This book offers an up-to-date compendium that covers the historical, legal, research and applied issues related to animal abuse and cruelty.

Animal abuse has been an acknowledged problem for centuries, but only within the past few decades has scientific research provided evidence that the maltreatment of animals often overlaps with violence toward people. The variants of violence, including bullying or assaults in a schoolyard, child abuse in homes, violence between adult intimate partners, community hostility in our streets and neighborhoods, and even the context of war, are now the subject of concerted research efforts. Very often, the association of these forms of violence with cruelty to animals has been found. The perpetrators of such inhumane treatment are often children and adolescents. How common are these incidents? What motivates human maltreatment of animals? Are there cultural, societal, neighborhood, and family contexts that contribute to cruelty to animals? How early in a child's life does cruelty to animals emerge and are these incidents always a sign of future interpersonal violence? Are there ways of preventing such cruelty? Can we intervene effectively with children who already have a history of abuse and violence? Children and Animals: Exploring the Roots of Kindness and Cruelty presents the current scientific and professional wisdom about the relation between the maltreatment of animals and interpersonal violence directed toward other human beings. However, the author, Frank R. Ascione, a noted expert in these areas, writes in a style and presents the findings in a language that will be understandable to parents, teachers, counselors, clergy, animal welfare professionals, foster parents, mental health professionals, youth workers, law enforcement professionals, and anyone else whose work or interest crosses into the lives of children and adolescents.

Animal cruelty is linked directly or indirectly with every type of violent crime, and, what is not as well known, also with most nonviolent crime. Human beings would benefit enormously if fighting animal cruelty (investigating, prosecuting) were taken seriously. Many human lives would be saved and much human suffering would be prevented. Violent individuals are "made" and not born. Children are born with a love of animals, but the home environment plays a major role in determining a child's prosocial or antisocial personality and behavior. Child abuse, neglect, abandonment, and witnessing domestic violence are major factors in creating violent individuals, along with poverty, alcoholism, and toxic neighborhoods.