Animal cruelty and psychiatric disorders.

Correlates of cruelty to animals in the United States: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.

OBJECTIVE To examine the sociodemographic, behavioral, and psychiatric correlates of cruelty to animals in the US. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data were derived from a nationally representative sample of adults residing in the US Structured psychiatric interviews (N=43,093) were completed by trained lay interviewers between 2001 and 2002. Personality, substance use, mood, and anxiety disorders and ...

Reports of severe physical punishment and exposure to animal cruelty by inmates convicted of felonies and by university students.

A self-report questionnaire designed to assess abusive childhood environments and exposure to animal cruelty was administered to 314 inmates in a prisoner classification center. Although high rates of physical punishment characterized the entire sample, persons charged with violent, but nonhomicidal crimes reported more severely punitive childhood histories than those charged with homicidal cri...

Animal Maltreatment: Forensic Mental Health Issues and Evaluations.

Animal maltreatment, typically under the rubric of “animal cruelty,” sometimes enters the psychiatric literature as a manifestation of psychopathology or in relationship to aggression against humans. In this book, animal maltreatment is cast more broadly to include physical abuse, sexual abuse, hoarding, and neglect of animals. Rather than animal abuse or cruelty, deliberate physical abuse is d...

Why doctors should care about animal cruelty.

BACKGROUND Animal cruelty is a significant problem for society, and there are good reasons why doctors should be particularly concerned by it. Increasing evidence for links between animal cruelty and child or spousal abuse is an area of growing concern internationally and of real importance to health professionals. OBJECTIVE This article aims to raise awareness of the relevance of animal crue...

The "animal rights" movement's cruelty to humans.