This document discusses a study that examined whether committing animal abuse during childhood was related to later approval of interpersonal violence. The study surveyed university students about their experiences with animal abuse as children and their current attitudes towards corporal punishment and spousal violence. It found that respondents who had abused animals as children were significantly more likely to support corporal punishment of children and a husband slapping his wife, even after controlling for other factors. This suggests engaging in childhood violence against animals may lead to greater acceptance of violence against less powerful family members like women and children.

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Animal Abuse in Childhood and Later Support for
Interpersonal Violence in Families
Clifton P. Flynn1
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA SPARTANBURG
A survey of university students tested whether committing animal abuse
during childhood was related to approval of interpersonal violence against
children and women in families. Respondents who had abused an animal
as children or adolescents were significantly more likely to support
corporal punishment, even after controlling for frequency of childhood
spanking, race, biblical literalism, and gender. Those who had perpetrated
animal abuse were also more likely to approve of a husband slapping his
wife. Engaging in childhood violence against less powerful beings฀
animals฀may generalize to the acceptance of violence against less pow-
erful members of families and society฀women and children. This paper
discusses the implications of this process.
Several scholars have examined the link between animal abuse and violence to
humans, but only recently have researchers focused on how maltreatment of
animals is related to violence within families (Boat, 1995; Lockwood & Ascione,
1998). These few studies have looked at how animal abuse in families may be a sign
of other forms of violence, such as child abuse (DeViney, Dickert, & Lockwood,
1983) or wife abuse (Ascione, 1998). Arkow (1996) argues that childhood animal
cruelty may identify not only those who currently live in violent families but also
those who may engage in future antisocial behavior. Further, Ascione ( 1992, 1993)
suggests that experiencing animal cruelty, as well as various other forms of
violence in families, may interfere with the development of empathy in children.
Exploration has begun on the connection between animal cruelty and violent
behavior in families. No studies, however, have examined whether animal abuse
committed as a youth is related to later approval of violence against women and
children in families.
Animal Abuse
Earlier studies, using samples of aggressive criminals (Felthous & Kellert, 1986;
Kellert & Felthous, 1985) or troubled youth (Rigdon & Tapia, 1979; Tapia, 1971)

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have found an association between animal abuse in childhood and later violent
behavior. This phenomenon was essentially characteristic of males with harsh
childhoods, often including violence inflicted by their fathers. A more recent study
(Miller & Knutson, 1997) found a significant correlation between physical punish-
ment and animal abuse for two populations-violent criminals and college stu-
dents. Taken together, these studies provide evidence that animal abuse can serve
both as a marker for children experiencing violence and abuse and as a link to future
violent behavior. Thus, the childhood socialization of those who are cruel to
animals may provide multiple opportunities to learn and rehearse violence.
Owens & Straus (1975) examined the relationship between violence experi-
enced as a child and acceptance of interpersonal violence as an adult. They found
that committing violent acts as a child was positively related to approving
interpersonal violence-including spanking a child and slapping a wife. This
relationship, somewhat stronger for males than females, was not affected by
socioeconomic status. If engaging in violence against humans as a child leads to
more favorable attitudes toward interpersonal violence, then committing violence
against animals could have a similar result.
Attitudes toward Nonabusive Violence in Families
Corporal Punishment
The physical punishment of children enjoys strong normative support in this
country. In 1986, 84% of Americans agreed that "it is sometimes necessary to
discipline a child with a good, hard spanking." By 1991, only 73% agreed with
administering corporal punishment. Support for spanking had declined somewhat
(National Opinion Research Center, 1991). Not only do nearly three out of four
Americans approve of spanking, but certain groups have demonstrated particularly
favorable attitudes. Race, religion, and region have been important variables
related to spanking attitudes (Flynn, 1996a). Research has found that
African-Americans (Alvy, 1987, Flynn, 1998), conservative Protestants, those
who believe the Bible is the literal word of God (Ellison & Sherkat, 1993; Wiehe,
1990), and Southerners (Flynn, 1994, 1996b) have shown strong support for the
physical punishment of children.
Husband-to-Wife Violence
In contrast to attitudes toward corporal punishment, Americans strongly opposed
husbands hitting their wives. As of 1994, only 10% of Americans said that there

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were "any situations that you can imagine in which you would approve of a husband
slapping his wife's face." This represented a significant decline since 1964, when
21 % approved of a husband slapping his wife (Straus, Kaufman Kantor, & Moore,
1994). These researchers found that gender, ethnicity, region, and age all related to
support for husband-to-wife interpersonal violence. Males, whites, Southerners,
and younger respondents were more likely to approve of such violence.
If abusing animals both socializes children to engage in violence, and inhibits
the development of empathy in children, then not only is animal abuse more likely
to lead to interpersonal violence,but also animal abuse may relate to more accepting
attitudes toward interpersonal violence. This may be particularly true if a child who
has abused animals has also been a victim of violence within the family. This study
investigates the link between perpetrating animal abuse in childhood and maintain-
ing favorable attitudes in young adulthood toward nonabusive violence against
children and women in families. Specifically, are young adults who abused animals
as children or adolescents more likely to support spanking children, and to approve
of a husband slapping his wife?
Methods
Sample and Data Collection
Participants were 267 undergraduate students taking introductory psychology and
sociology courses at a public southeastern university in the fall of 1997. Students
completed an eighteen-page questionnaire asking about their experiences with
animal abuse, their experiences with and attitudes about various forms of family
violence, and certain demographic information. Participation was voluntary.
Administered in classes, the questionnaire took approximately 25 minutes to
complete. Because of the potentially disturbing items on the questionnaire, in-
formed consent was obtained from each student. To insure students' complete
anonymity, however, this process was conducted separately from the administra-
tion of the questionnaire
Nearly three-fourths of the sample was white (73.4%), and about one-fifth
were African-American. Over two-thirds of the respondents were female (68.4%).
Most of the respondents were typical college age students at or near the beginning
of their college careers. The majority of students were either freshmen (58.8%) or
sophomores (24.3%). Eighty percent were under the age of twenty-one, and almost
92% were younger than twenty-five. Ninety percent were single, and 95.5% were
childless.

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Measures
Animal abuse. Perpetrating animal abuse was measured using five items from the
Boat Inventory on Animal-Related Experiences, formerly called the Animal-Related
Trauma Inventory (Boat, 1997, personal communication). Miller and Knutson
(1997) adapted the inventory for use in questionnaire format, and that version,
modified, was used here. The five acts of animal abuse were (a) killing a pet; (b)
killing a stray or wild animal; (c) hurting or torturing an animal to tease it or cause
it pain; (d) touching an animal sexually; and (e) having sex with an animal. If the
respondent admitted to committing any one of the five acts, then the respondent was
considered to have perpetrated animal abuse. Items concerning killing an animal
explicitly excluded killing for food ( farm animals intended for slaughter), hunting,
and mercy killing, so that socially-approved behaviors were not counted as abuse.
In addition, for each type of cruelty respondents were asked to report the type
of animal involved, what was done to the animal, the number of separate incidents,
and the age when the cruelty was first committed. For type of animal, the possible
responses were (a) dogs, (b) cats, (c) other small animals (e.g., rodents, birds,
reptiles, poultry), (d) large animals (horses, sheep, goats, cattle, donkey, pigs), and
(e) other. The response choices for method of cruelty included (a) poisoned (gas,
drugs, alcohol), (b) drowned, strangled, smothered, (c) hit, beat, kicked, threw
against a wall or object, (d) shot, and (e) stabbed or poked with sharp object, burned,
blew up, and castrated or mutilated genitals. For number of incidents, respondents
could choose either one, two, three to five, or six or more. Finally, the possible
responses for age at first incident were "2 to 5," "6 to 12," "teenager," or "adult."
Attitudes toward corporal punishment. The following item measured the variable:
"Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree that it is sometimes
necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard spanking?" Responses were coded
from 0 to 3, with 3 being "strongly agree," such that a higher score indicated a more
favorable attitude toward spanking.
Approval of husband slapping wife. Respondents were asked whether they strongly
agreed, agreed, disagreed, or strongly disagreed with the following statement: "I
can imagine a situation in which I would approve of a husband slapping his wife."
As with the spanking variable, responses were coded from 0 to 3, with 3 being
"strongly agree," so that a higher score means greater approval for a wife being
slapped by her husband.

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Control variables. Four variables served as control variables: frequency of physical
punishment prior to adolescence, race, biblical literalism, and gender. Frequency
of physical punishment was measured by asking the following question: "Before
you were a teenager, about how often would you say your parents (or stepparents)
used physical punishment, like spanking, slapping, or hitting you?" Possible
responses were never, once, twice, 3-5 times, 6-10 times, 11-20 times, or more than
20 times. Responses were coded from 0 to 6, with 0 being "never" and 6 being
"more than twenty times." The question was asked twice-once for each parent-
and the two answers were summed to get a total frequency of preteen physical
punishment score.
Race was dichotomized as white or nonwhite. Biblical literalism was measured
by asking respondents whether they strongly agreed, agree, disagreed, or strongly
disagreed that "the Bible is the literal word of God." Responses were coded from
0 to 3, with a higher number indicating greater belief in biblical literalism.
Results
Perpetrating Animal Abuse
Over one-sixth of the sample-17.6%-reported perpetrating at least one act of
animal abuse. The most common form of abuse was killing a stray animal ( 13.1 %),
followed by hurting or torturing an animal (6.7%), and killing a pet (2.6%). There
was very little evidence of sexual acts committed on animals (see Table 1).
Males were nearly four times more likely than females to have abused an
animal. More than a third of males, but only one out of ten females, admitted to
harming or killing an animal. Whites were somewhat more likely than nonwhites
to have committed animal abuse-19.4% vs. 12.7%.
Table 2 summarizes the data regarding the type of animals abused, the method
of abuse used, the number of separate incidents, and age of the first incident for the
three most prevalent types of animal cruelty. The most common victims of animal
cruelty were small animals (rodents, birds, reptiles, and poultry), dogs, and cats. For
respondents who reported killing animals, the typical victims were small animals.
Of the thirty-five individuals who had killed a wild or stray animal, 77.1 % said they
had killed a small animal. For those who had hurt or tortured animals, small animals s
(50.0%) and dogs (44.4%) were the most likely victims.
The majority of those who had perpetrated animal abuse-33 out of 47
(70.2%)-had committed only one type of abuse. About one in five (n=9) had

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committed two different types, 8.5% had inflicted three types of abuse, and one
respondent reported committing four of the five types of animal cruelty.
Almost all perpetrators, however, had abused animals on more than one
occasion. Although only 35.3% said they had only killed a stray or wild animal on
one occasion, nearly four out of ten had done so twice, and approximately
one-fourth had killed a stray or wild animal in three or more separate incidents.
Similarly, only 22.2% of those who had hurt or tortured an animal had done so only
once. One-third reported two separate incidents of cruelty, one-sixth reported three
to five incidents, and 27.8% reported six or more.
For those who had killed a stray or wild animal (n=35), 70.6% reported that the
act occurred during adolescence, with 29.4% saying they killed an animal between
ages six to twelve. Half of the eighteen respondents who hurt or tortured an animal
did so between the ages of six and twelve, while one-third hurt or tortured animals
as teenagers.
Attitudes toward Spanking Children and Slapping Wives
As expected, corporal punishment received fairly strong support. Seventy-one
percent of respondents reported that they either agreed (47.2%) or strongly agreed
(23.8%) that "it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard
spanking."
Not surprisingly, very little support existed for a husband slapping his wife.
Only 7.2% of the students agreed (6.4%) or strongly agreed (.8%) that they could
"imagine a situation in which they would approve of a husband slapping his wife."
Eighty percent of respondents strongly disagreed with that statement.

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Relationship between Animal Abuse and Attitudes toward Violence
Spanking. Respondents who had abused an animal during childhood had signifi-
cantly more favorable attitudes toward corporal punishment (M=2.18) than those
who had not perpetrated animal abuse (M=1.81, p< .05). However, there may be

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other factors related to attitudes toward corporal punishment that may account for
this difference. To control for this possibility, a multiple regression analysis was
performed (see Table 3), with four control variables in the model: the frequency of
physical punishment received from both parents before age 13, the race of the
respondent (white/nonwhite), belief in biblical literalism, and the respondent's s
gender. When controlling for these factors, the difference between animal abuse
groups remains, with those committing animal abuse still having more favorable
attitudes toward spanking. The adjusted mean for spanking attitudes among those
who had abused an animal was 2.13, compared with 1.82 for those who had not
perpetrated animal abuse (p=.0357). Three of the four control variables were also
significantly related to attitudes toward corporal punishment, with nonwhites,
biblical literalists, and those who were spanked frequently as children being more
supportive of spanking. Gender was not significantly related to spanking attitudes.
Husband Slapping Wife. Because of the small number of participants who ex-
pressed any degree of approval for a husband slapping his wife (n=19), this attitude
variable was dichotomized as either approving or disapproving of a wife being
slapped by her husband, and a chi-square analysis was performed. Respondents
who had abused an animal were more likely to approve of a husband slapping his
wife than those who had never committed animal abuse by three to one-15.6%
compared with 5.4% (xz=5.727, p=.017). No differences based on gender were
found, as only 7% of both males and females approved of a husband slapping his
wife.

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Discussion
The high incidence of childhood animal abuse uncovered in this sample of college
students is alarming. As a child, one out of six respondents and one in three male
respondents had harmed or killed an animal. Interestingly, students were more
likely to have killed a wild or stray animal than they were to have hurt or tortured
an animal. Although this may seem counterintuitive at first glance, there are at least
two logical explanations for such a finding. First, since small animals were the most
likely type of animal to be killed, some respondents may have reported socially
sanctioned behaviors, such as killing mice and rats, or snakes (i.e., "vermin") that
may not be seen by themselves or others as abusive. This possibility calls attention
to more precise operationalization of animal cruelty in future studies. However, a
second and equally plausible explanation is that hurting or torturing an animal to
tease or cause pain is a more deviant act than killing an animal, and thus it occurs
less frequently. While killing animals is socially sanctioned in many circum-
stances, torturing animals never is. The act of torturing an animal for the thrill of
inflicting pain and suffering is, in many ways, a more disturbing act, both
psychologically and socially, than ending an animal's life.
Committing animal abuse during childhood is related to later approval of
interpersonal violence against children and women in families. The findings are
consistent with the conclusions of Owens and Straus (1975), who argued that the
social structure of childhood violence, including violence committed by children,
is related to approving interpersonal violence as an adult. Although their study
focused on violence against humans, these findings suggest that the relationship
holds for childhood violence against animals as well.
Perpetrating animal abuse during childhood was a significant predictor of
attitudes toward corporal punishment-even after controlling for race, gender,
biblical literalism, and frequency of being spanked as a child. Previous research
(Straus, 1991 ) has shown that parents who approve of corporal punishment not only
tend to use it more frequently, but also are more likely to be physically abusive to
their children. If being cruel to animals as a child leads to later support for hitting
children, then it may also make it easier to actually hit children as an adult. Given
the host of potential negative outcomes associated with spanking-antisocial
behavior, substance abuse, depression, interpersonal violence-the relationship
between animal cruelty and support for spanking should be cause for concern
(Straus, 1994).

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Because of the small number of respondents who had both perpetrated animal
abuse as children and who approved of a husband slapping his wife, the relationship
between these variables should be interpreted cautiously. Nevertheless, the fact that
a statistically significant result was obtained suggests that the relationship is a fairly
powerful one.
Ascione (1992, 1993) has argued that animal abuse could interfere with the
development of empathy in children. The findings from this study can be inter-
preted in light of this position. If cruelty to animals does cause children to be less
empathic, it makes sense that they may be less troubled as young adults by parents
hitting children or husbands hitting wives. Further, if abusing animals not only
inhibits one's ability to show kindness and compassion, but also socializes one to
use violence, then perpetrators may be more likely not only to approve intimate
violence, but to engage in it as well. It is important to acknowledge that some
children may start out with an empathy deficit that could cause them to approve of
and employ violence against both human and nonhuman animals. Only further
research can answer this question.
Either way, future research should explore the link between childhood animal
cruelty and later violence in families. Beyond that, social scientists should also
explore how abusing animals as a child may influence adult attitudes toward hitting
animals, as well as abusive treatment of animals as an adult.
Even though the relationship between perpetrating animal abuse and accept-
ance of interpersonal violence did not differ by gender, the fact that males are nearly
four times more likely to abuse animals should not be overlooked. The socialization
of males includes lessons about dominance and aggression. Animal abuse offers an
opportunity to rehearse dominance and aggression against less powerful beings,
thereby reinforcing the beliefs that support such behaviors, particularly if the abuse
is not perceived by parents or society as being a serious offense.
Although not measured in this study, future researchers should examine the
reaction of parents, other authority figures, and peers to youths' animal abuse. The
response of significant others may play an important role in determining the effect
of abusing animals on one's attitudes toward, and propensity for engaging in,
interpersonal violence. Parents and others who ignore animal cruelty may contrib-
ute to a greater acceptance of violence against human and nonhuman animals. The
high incidence of childhood animal cruelty also suggests that many parents are
unaware of the abusive acts their children are committing against animals, and thus,
of the potential long-term negative consequences for their children's development.

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Ending animal abuse will have important consequences for the well-being of
children and women. Efforts to stop the cruel treatment of animals are likely to
contribute to the decreased tolerance for interpersonal violence, and thus to
lessening the actual incidence of violence against women and children. But just as
important, as Solot (1997) reminds us, attention to violence toward animals is
needed not just because it is related to violence toward humans. Rather, such efforts
will help to end the needless suffering of innocent animals, and thus contribute to
achieving a nonviolent society for all living beings.
Note
1.Correspondence should be sent to Clifton P. Flynn, Department of Sociology, University
of South Carolina Spartanburg, Spartanburg, SC 29303, or e-mail to cflynn@gw.uscs.edu.
I wish to thank Jill Jones, Kenneth Shapiro, and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable
comments.
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