A Cross-National Test of Agnew's Integrated Theory of the Causes of Animal Abuse among Individuals

• In Event: New Applications of General Strain Theory

Abstract

The current study is one of the first to heed growing calls for social scientists, especially criminologists, to attend to the issue of animal abuse, which has been linked with domestic violence and a range of other forms of violent behavior. First, we assess the prevalence of animal abuse reported in a survey of over 1,000 adults in Lviv, Ukraine, and Nizhni Novgorod, Russia,two non-western societies that are not as well known as the US for having a strong pro-animal culture.In addition, we use these data to construct a demographic profile of animal abusers in these countries, as compared to animal
abusers in the US and other types of offenders. Finally, we test a series of hypotheses derived from Agnew’s (1998: 178, emphasis in original) theory of the causes of animal abuse, which “draws on social learning, strain, control, and certain other theories of crime in order to explain why individuals abuse animals.” As a result of our research, we will be able to estimate the extent of animal cruelty in comparative contexts, sketch a general profile of the perpetrators of
relevant offenses, and assess the applicability and generality of Agnew’s (1998) explanatory framework.

Authors

• Lorine Hughes, University of Colorado Denver

• Ekaterina Botchkovar, Northeastern University

• Olena Antonaccio, University of Miami