The United States and Australia: Pioneer Territories in The Link Research

The National Link Coalition: A pioneering American institution in the promotion of the Link

Today,
it is increasingly recognized that animal abuse is a potential
indicator of aggressive or violent behaviour towards humans, and a
variety of initiatives are emerging around the world in favour of
measures and procedures. These measures and procedures take this
gathered knowledge into account in order to prevent the escalation of
violence within families and society. The National Link Coalition,
headquartered in the United States, is a pioneer in promoting the
Link internationally. The coalition is led by a steering committee of
US specialists in the prevention of all forms of domestic violence,
and its mission is to promote policies and practices to improve the
safety of people and animals. National Link Coalition groups have been formed in 20 US states. (8)

There
is little doubt that animal abuse is often linked to other forms of
interpersonal violence. This discovery is now firmly established in
the literature on domestic violence and criminology, whether the
perpetrators are students, offenders, criminals, partners of battered
women, or children (9).

Most
of the previous studies were based on convenience samples * and
cross-sectional data. In a study conducted in 1999, Arluke and his
colleagues compared the criminal record of 153 individuals convicted
of animal abuse with those of a control group of 153 individuals who
did not abuse animals, with correspondence on the subject. Gender,
age, socio-economic status and street or neighbourhood (10). Animal
abusers were at least three times more likely to have a criminal
record and at least five times more likely to have committed a crime
or violent offense.

In
the first US animal cruelty study, based on a representative sample
of the adult national population, researchers (11) analysed data from
the 2001-2002 national epidemiological survey on alcohol-related
problems (NESARC). This survey covered 43,093 residents aged 18 and
over, excluding residents of specialized institutions and a
comparison was made between those who reported having abused animals
and those who had never abused them, concerning 31 different
antisocial behaviours. Individuals who admitted to mistreating
animals were significantly more likely than others to have exhibited
all of these antisocial behaviours. The strongest links between
antisocial behaviour and animal cruelty have been observed in
individuals guilty of robbery or assault, arson, harassment or
threats.

This
study also indicates a significant relationship between cruelty to
animals and a number of psychiatric disorders such as alcohol-related
disorders, pathological gambling, behavioural disorders, antisocial
personality disorders, and many other disorders. personality
(obsessive compulsive disorder, paranoid disorder and histrionic
personality disorder *).

These
links were observed even after taking into account a number of
relevant socio-demographic variables:

• Age,

• Sex,

• Ethnic
  origins,

• The
  level of education,

• Income,

• The
  family situation,

• The
  region and place of residence, in urban or rural areas.

In
a 2009 study of 860 undergraduate students, DeGue and DeLillo found
that 60% of students who witnessed or participated in acts of animal
cruelty during their childhood were also abused. witnesses of
domestic violence at home (12). Those who have been directly abused
or neglected have the highest probability of abusing animals. Those
who have witnessed acts of animal abuse are eight times more likely
to have abused animals, and 30% of those exposed to domestic violence
have also experienced animal abuse. However, only about 30% of those
who experienced domestic violence also experienced animal abuse.

«Animal abuse may therefore be a more reliable indicator of family violence than the other way around.»

In
all cases, animal abuse is a strong indicator of multiple forms of
violence against family members.

Australian input into the Link research

Research
conducted in Australia has essentially confirmed the results observed
in other countries, predominantly in the United States and the United
Kingdom. Several books and articles have been devoted to this work
(12 to 20). The Link research in Australia was conducted by a small
team of researchers. These include Gullone, who has demonstrated a
connection between animal cruelty on the one hand and harassment and
bullying of teenagers, domestic violence and witnessing acts of
cruelty to animals committed by persons of significant importance to
the witness (12 to 16). Dr. Tania Signal, among others (19),
conducted a significant number of studies in Australia and
contributed significantly to Australian research (13). Groups and
resources (20) to study the Link in a concrete way have been
developed across the country. A relatively new project called Lucy’s
project was launched (19).

*
Convenience sample: the subjects in the study are chosen for
practical reasons, and because the researcher did not find it useful
to choose subjects that are representative of the global population.

*
Histrionic personality: Personality disorder characterized by a
marked tendency to dramatization or theatricality. Frequently it is
easy to be influenced by others or by circumstances.

Sources

8
http: //nationallinkcoalition.o …
9
Flynn, Clifton P., Understanding Animal Abuse: A Sociological
Analysis, Lantern Books, 2012. 
10 Arluke,
A., Levin, J., Luke, C. and Ascione, F. (1999), “The
Relationship of Animal Abuse to Violence and Other Forms of
Antisocial Behavior”. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14:
963-75.
11
Vaughn, Michael G., Qiang Fu, Matt DeLisi, Kevin M. Beaver, Brian E.
Perron, Katie Terrell and Matthew O. Howard (2009), “Correlates
of Cruelty to Animals in the United States: Results from the National
Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Journal of
Psychiatric Research 43: 1213-18. 
12
DeGue, Sarah and David DeLillo (2009), Is Animal Cruelty a Red Flag
for Family Violence? Investigating Co-occurrence Violence toward
Children, Partners and Pets. ” Journal of Interpersonal Violence
24: 1036-56.
13
Clifton Flynn, Professor of Sociology and Rector at the University of
South Carolina, Spartanburg, SC, USA.
12
Gullone, E. (2012), Animal Cruelty, Antisocial Behavior and
Aggression: More than a link. Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., Hampshire.
13
Gullone, E. and Clarke, J. (2008), “Human-Animal Interactions:
The Australian Perspective.” In F. Ascione (et al.), The
International Handbook of Theory and Research on Animal Abuse and
Cruelty (pp. 305-335). West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University
Press. 
14
Gullone, E. (2012), “Animal cruelty and family violence”.
In Reyes, C.L. and Brewster, M.P. (et al). Animal Cruelty and the
Criminal Justice System (pp. 237-262), Durham, NC, Carolina Academic
Press.
15
Gullone, E. and Robertson, N. (2008), “The relationship between
bullying and animal abuse in adolescents: The importance of
witnessing animal abuse”. Journal of Applied Developmental
Psychology, 29, 371-379. 
16 Thompson,
K. and Gullone, E. (2008), “Prosocial and antisocial behaviors
in adolescents: An investigation into associations with attachment
and empathy”. Anthrozoos, 21, 123-137
17
Volant, A., Johnson, J., Gullone, E. and Coleman, G. (2008), “The
relationship between family violence and animal abuse”. Journal
of Interpersonal Violence, 23, 1277-1295.

18
https://scholar.google.com.au/…
19
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au… 
20
http://www.mysavinggrace.org.a…