The relationship between animal cruelty in children and adolescent and interpersonal violence: A systematic review

The following study is a systematic review of the relationship between animal cruelty and interpersonal violence. The systematic literature review following PRISMA guidelines and combined with the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, enabled us to locate 32 studies published between 1995 and July 2017. Overall, the results show that episodes of animal cruelty during childhood and adolescence tend to co-occur alongside other forms of violent and antisocial behaviors. Cruelty to animals was associated with bullying, behavioral problems, experiences of abuse (emotional, physical and sexual), and juvenile delinquency. Furthermore, recurrent animal cruelty during childhood and adolescence was a significant predictor of the future adult perpetration of interpersonal violence. Specifically, drowning animals or committing sexual acts with them predicted future adult violence directed against other humans. These findings lend empirical support to the progression, or graduation, hypothesis and the deviance generalization hypothesis. The implications of these results for clinical practice and future research are discussed. Finally, since this review has found significant limitations in the literature analyzed, methodological recommendations are provided and discussed.