Issues With Investigating Animal Abuse

This paper presents a discussion on the meaning and definition of animal abuse, the methods used to investigate it, and the relationship between animal abuse and interpersonal violence.

The underlying assumptions of this study include:

• In the study of animal abuse experiences it is necessary to understand participants’ conceptualizations of animal abuse;
• It is important to use qualitative, in addition to quantitative data, especially if we want to gain a deeper insight into animal abuse experiences, in particular into perpetrators’ motivations;
• It is imperative that the field of animal abuse research is considered an integral and important component not only of psychiatry and clinical psychology but also of sociology and social psychology;
• The commonalities between animal abuse and interpersonal violence are deep and numerous.