Children Who are Cruel to Animals: A Review of Research and Implications for Developmental Psychopathology

The relation between childhood cruelty toward animals and interpersonal aggression has long been of interest to developmental psychology, psychiatry, and related disciplines but the empirical study of this relation is relatively recent. This review highlights existing quantitative and qualitative research on childhood animal cruelty, organized according to four areas: (1) the relation between childhood cruelty to animals and concurrent and later antisocial behavior; (2) the significance of cruelty to animals as a specific symptom in the DSM-III-R classification Conduct Disorder; (3) the implication of cruelty to animals in various forms of family and community violence, including child physical and sexual abuse and wife battering; and (4) suggestions for research in the areas of definition, prevention, and intervention.