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Potential Causal Relationship Between Animal Cruelty And Later Violent Offenses

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This study focuses on evaluating the potential causal relationship between animal cruelty and later violent offenses, as well as the factors that form the foundation of that potential relationship. This study served to further a good deal of past research, most notably the work done by MacDonald (1963), who introduced the threesome of fire setting, enuresis, and cruelty of animals as predictors of aggression. Although there has not been a good deal of research linking the first two aspects to future violence, much research has focused on the relationship between animal cruelty and aggression. However, the majority of these studies had limited causal application as a result of using either a cross-sectional design or being dependent upon participant reflection on events that occurred decades earlier. Thus, this study sought not only to determine whether a causal relationship existed, but also if factors such as age, sex, or race played a role in predicting aggressive behavior. The researchers presented four hypotheses. First, they predicted that animal cruelty would predict aggressive offenses after controlling for age, sex, race, and early onset of behavior problems. The second hypothesis held that violence against animals would serve as a stronger predictor of aggressive offenses than of non-aggressive offenses. In their third hypothesis, researchers predicted that sex would serve as a moderator variable in the relationship between animal cruelty and aggressive offending.

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