How does growing up as an adolescent in a violent environment make you become cruel to animals? – ANNOTATED OUTLINE
1.0 The adolescent and violent environment
1.1 Rosen K. H. (1998). The Family Roots of Aggression and Violence: A Life Span Perspective. In L. L’Avate, Family Psychopathology: The Relational Roots of Dysfunctional Behavior (pp. 333-355). Guilford Press.
In this chapter, Rosen illustrates why the society should consider violence among adolescents as a serious public health crisis. The work of the author centers the idea that violent behaviours among the youth sprung from the family, and should be likewise consider as a serious societal problem. Rosen also argues that in order to diminish the occurrence of violent, it is important to understand the developmental origins of violence.
1.2 Timmer, J. (2007). Researcher makes a case for linking violent media and real-world violence. Journal of Adolescent Health.
Timmer investigates the literature in terms of the interplay between a violent environment and the emergence of aggressive behaviors among the young. Actual violent behaviors, as according to the author, are realised based on three patterns: association, mimicry and observational learning.
1.3 Kontos, L. and Brotherton, D. (2008). Encyclopedia of Gangs. Greenwood Publishing Group.
The authors relate how it is like growing in a gang society. Understanding the world of gang as a basic example of violent environment would be necessary as this contributes to the development of anti-social behaviours among adolescents. Kontos and Brotherton relate that the presence of gangs affect the social organisation of the community and affects the behavioral development of the people involved whom are basically school-aged.
1.4 Davis, D. L. (). The Aggressive Adolescent. Chapters 3-6.
Davis focuses his discussion on the developmental sequence of expressiveness among adolescents with particular reference on the general concepts of development. He then tackles the violent developmental model of youth as well as the cognitive characteristics of violent adolescents and cognitive processes of aggressive youth and how a violent environment plays a role for both.
2.0 The violent environment and animal cruelty
2.1 Merz-Perez, L. and Heidi, K. M. (2003). Animal Cruelty: Pathway to Violence Against People. Rowman Altamira.
Merz-Perez and Heide discovered that animal cruelty is more common on children who were victims of violence or witnesses to any form of violence in their immediate surrounding. Antisocial and criminal behaviours are directly related with the quality of environment that these children were exposed into. The authors also discovered that there are seven reasons to animal cruelty: to control an animal, to express aggression through an animal, to enhance one’s own aggressiveness, to shock people for amusement, to retaliate against another person, displacement of hostility from a person to an animal and nonspecific sadism.
2.2 Ruben, D. (n.d.). Animal Cruelty and Violence Against People. Retrieved on 18 February 2009, from http://www.apparitionarts.com/Animal_Cruelty_and_Violence_Against_People.doc.
Ruben asserts that animal cruelty by anyone should be considered as a sign of deeper psychological problems. Animal cruelty is inflicted by both adults and children and it should not be considered as ‘a phase’ in the life of the child. The author also asserts that the violent acts witnessed by the child could be the same violent acts he may commit when the child grows older. Animal abuse then should be stopped as a precursor of preventing the emergence of more violent acts to be committed by the child.
2.3 Blum, J. (2003). Study links animal abuse, home violence. Columbus Telegram online. Retrieved on 18 February 2009, from http://www.columbustelegram.com/articles/2003/10/21/news/news3.txt.
Because of the alarming statistics that shows the close tie between animal cruelty and human violence, a campaign was launched to raise public awareness on how a violent environment could lead to animal cruelty and then the development of antisocial behaviours.
3.0 The adolescent animal cruelty
3.1 Ascione, F. R. (2005). Children and Animals: Exploring the Roots of Kindness and Cruelty. Purdue University Press: West Lafayette, IN.
Ascione talks about animal cruelty as a long-standing problem of our society. The maltreatment of animals often overlaps with violence toward human. 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 considered as variants of animal cruelty that is impose by a child.
3.2 Ascione, F. R., Thompson, T. and Black, T. (1997). Childhood Cruelty to Animals: Assessing Cruelty Dimensions and Motivations. A Multidisciplinary Journal of the Interactions of People & Animals, 10(4): 170-177.
The authors maintain that preventing and treating childhood cruelty to animals will require qualitative, as well as quantitative, assessment methods and specification of the varied motivations for such behavior. The prevalence and frequency of animal maltreatment in samples of children and adolescents could be because of curiosity and peer reinforcement, modification of mood state, imitation of adult cruelty, and using animals as an “implement” of self-injury.
3.3 Bell, L. (2001). Abusing children – abusing animals. Journal of Social Work 1(2), 223-234.
Bell assert that f an individual is cruel to animals then he/she is more likely to be aggressive towardshis/her partner and children; that children who are abused aremore likely to be cruel to animals; and that children who arecruel to animals are more likely to be aggressive towards humans.
3.4 Haden, S. C. and Scarpa, A. (2005). Childhood animal cruelty: A review of research, assessment, and therapeutic issues. The Forensic Examiner 14(2), 23-33.
A link between childhood animal cruelty and adult criminal behavior is in the forefront of international events. This article explains why animal abuse is an important behavior to pay attention to and reviews research regarding its prevalence, etiology, assessment, and treatment. The literature suggests that animal cruelty is not uncommon among children and may be associated with certain family and child factors, as well as adult criminal behavior.
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