Animal abuse provokes psychological damage that creates antisocial behavior and a narcissist personality on human beings which increases the amount of domestic violence cases in the United States. Domestic violence is very common in the United States, “At least 5 million acts of domestic violence occur annually to women aged 18 years and older, with over 3 million involving men” (Huecker and Smock 1). The reason for this huge amount of domestic violence is because “animal abuse and bullying behaviors are not uncommon adolescent behaviors, and they appear to be more common among youth who witness animal abuse” (Gullone and Robertson 377). What this quote by Gullone and Robertson is trying to say is that if a young child has witnessed animal abuse they have a higher probability to be a bully when growing up, and after growing up as a bully throughout their childhood they are most likely to commit domestic violence in their adulthood due to the mental damaged that was caused from witnessing animal cruelty. I will be using the academic journal, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, as a model essay to help support my claim. In the academic journal, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Eleonora Gullone and Nerida Robertson wrote this journal to demonstrate how children who once in their life that have hurt animals are most likely to grow up and become a bully in their elementary school. The tone used by the authors in the journal were factual and formal. The audience most likely consist of people who are worried about violent behaviors that they know someone has. Both authors demonstrated by including an experiment and having statistics. Their experiment included “two manifestations of adolescent aggressive behaviours: animal abuse and bullying. Our aim was to examine whether the two can be predicted by the same variables”(Gullone and Robertson 372). Basically what Gullone and Robertson did was create an experiment to see how many adolescents had committed animal abuse and had ever bullied someone. In order, to gather this type of information they gathered old cases and stories. This experiment was successful because it proved that most cases of bullying had a correlation with animal abuse as well. 

An additional similarity between animal abuse and bullying can be found in the sex distributions of these behaviours, which are consistent with those found in the wider aggression literature. Studies have reported that males engage in rates of animal abuse behaviors that are four times higher than those of females (Flynn, 1999), and that males are more likely than females to engage in bullying behaviors. (Gullone and Robertson 372)

This quote proves that the majority of “males that engage in rates of animal abuse”(Gullone and Robertson 372) “are most likely to engage in bullying behavior”(Gullone and Robertson 372) this shows that there is a linked connection between animal abuse and bullying behavior. “Finally, both behaviours have been individually linked to other antisocial behaviors. Childhood histories of animal abuse have been associated with clinical child psychopathology”(Tapia 1971). This quote supports my claim that animal abuse provokes psychological damage on humans because according to Tapia bullying behaviors and animal abuse have both been “linked to other antisocial behavior”(Tapia 1971). Also, research has found that animal abuse behavior “when identified during the childhood years, has been linked to delinquency”(Baldry and Farrington). The exposure of delinquency to children then has been proven that it leads to “a history of criminal behavior”(Arluke 1999). The criminal behavior that the children show is “Empirical support includes studies showing that adult animal abuse often occurs in conjunction with domestic violence and other aggression directed toward humans”(Flynn 2000). This addresses and supports my claim that animal abuse behavior leads to defects metally like anti social behavior that cause domestic violence.

Secondly, In the scholarly article, “Adulthood Animal Abuse Among Men Arrested for Domestic Violence”, Jenniimaria Febres and Hope Bras articulate the connection between animal abuse and domestic violence “A great deal of research suggests an association between aggression perpetrated against non-human animals and against humans”(Febres and Bras 1060). Febres and Bras speak on how “criminals that have been guilty of domestic violence have significantly higher levels of childhood animal cruelty”(Febres and Bras 1061). This strongly supports my claim because criminals who have been found guilty of domestic violence have been proven by research that they have a “higher levels of animal cruelty”(Febres and Bras 1061). Furthermore, Febres and Bras verbalize how men who have been arrested for domestic violence have commited animal abuse as well.

 More recently, research has also begun to examine the relation between animal abuse committed as an adult and aggression against humans, including intimate partners, in a study of more than 3,000 women residing in 11 metropolitan cities in the United States who survived an attempted intimate homicide and proxies for women who were murdered by their intimate partners. (Febres and Bras 1060)

Furthermore, Febres and Bras started a research and found that most men who have commited animal abuse have also committed “aggression against humans” (Febres and Bras 1060) and those who committed domestic violence injured their intimate partner or murdered them. This backs up my claim because it establishes how men who have ever had animal abuse behavior have also had a correlation to physical violence with their intimate partner. In the scholarly article, “Adulthood Animal Abuse Among Men Arrested for Domestic Violence”, Jenniimaria Febres and Hope Bras construct an experiment to see the percentage of connection between animal abuse and domestic violence. I believe animal abuse does have a strong influence on domestic violence because of the physiological damage that is caused by animal abuse, and Febres states that “The first aim of this study was to examine the prevalence and frequency of adulthood animal abuse perpetration among men court-referred to BIPs. Results (presented in Table 1) indicate that 41% (n = 125/307) of the sample reported committing at least one act of animal abuse since the age of 18”(Febres and Bras 1064). This shows that forty one percent of the human subjects that were guilty of domestic violence had “at least one act of animal abuse”(Febres and Bras 1064). The influence of at least one act of animal abuse strongly influences physiological damage which later in life turns into a domestic violence case with their loved one at home. Witnessing animal abuse triggers mental problems that have been proven by this experiment.

Additionally, In the academic journal, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Arnold Arluke, Jack Levin, Carter Luke and Frank Ascione have researched the topic on how animal abuse has a relationship with violence. Arluke, Levin, Luke, and Ascione have found “strong associations between aggressive behavior and animal abuse”(Arnold et al., 965). In this article the author’s created experiments where they investigated “official records of criminality in a sample of animal abusers who had come to the attention of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA)”(Arnold et al.,966). The author’s found that animal abusers who came to the attention of MSPCA also had domestic violence behavior. The reason for this correlation between domestic violence and animal abuse is because animal abuse creates antisocial behavior. Children that show antisocial behavior have also witnessed animal abuse and this mentally affects their behavior. “Since Macdonald (1961) first proposed his triad of childhood characteristics-enuresis, firesetting, and cruelty toward animals as symptomatic of violence proneness in later life, investigators have sought to document and clarify the relation between animal abuse and interpersonal violence”(Arnold et al., 964). This further on supports my claim because animal abuse does lead to antisocial behavior because according to Arluke “The adult personality disorder most closely related to violent behavior is antisocial personality disorder” meaning that the psychological damage that animal abuse causes is antisocial behavior. Antisocial behavior is a disruption of a person’s ways of thinking. Consequently, this disruption is disturbing a way a human thinks can lead to psychological problems which can become domestic violence.

In the same way, In the scholarly article, “Pets in Danger: Exploring the link between domestic violence and animal abuse”, Michelle Newberry has gathered research about how domestic violence and animal abuse are connected. In the article, Newberry used old studies from adult victims that have experienced domestic violence within the past twelve months and had an animal companion. Besides using studies, she also used anonymous stories of animal abuse that were obtained from online discussion forums “where victims voluntarily shared their experience”(Newberry 1). Overall, Newberry gathered a lot of information from studies and stories that prove to show that domestic violence and animal abuse have a connection. 

The second theme identified was Companion Animals Used to Control Victims. One victim made it clear that her partner was using violence, or the threat of it, to control her: Constant threats to me, the pets and the children showed us what he was capable of doing if we crossed the line. This theme comprised three subthemes, the first of which was Isolation. This subtheme encompassed how abusive partners tried to isolate victims by restricting their contact with friends and family. (Newberry 1)

Many abusive couples that experienced domestic violence and were using violence to control them. It first started with abusing the dog to try and control him and then went to abusing the woman and kids. This all correlates with domestic violence because it all started because of the man abusing pets. The man had a narcissistic personality disorder: A disorder in which a person has an inflated sense of self-importance. When someone has an inflated sense of self-importance it creates an unstable mental behavior, and the behavior then leads to domestic violence. Michelle Newberry used anonymous stories and one story said “One evening I was home late and he warned me if I came home late again he would hurt my new kitten. A week later I arrived home a few minutes late due to roadworks and he made me watch while he put my kitten in the dryer and put it on”. This proves that animal abuse creates a narcissistic personality disorder which then leads to domestic violence on their intimate partner.  Humans that committed domestic violence show aggression towards pets which malfunctions their behavior. 

Admittedly, some would argue against my claim and say that animal abuse does not have a correlation between domestic violence. Some would argue that it’s problems in their life that lead to domestic violence. According to the academic journal, Journal of Interpersonal Problems, Alissa Pollitz Worden and Bonnie E. Carlson constructed an experiment to discover the main reason why men have domestic violence behavior. Worden and Carlson concluded that “The most commonly mentioned causes (based on the nine categories) were work-related or financial stress (37%), sub- stance abuse (30%), anger and loss of control (28%), relationship problems (20%), early exposure to family violence (17%), adultery or jealousy (15%), and perpetrators’ mental health problems (14%)”(Worden and Carlson 1227). Based on Worden and Carlson’s research the main reasons why they perform domestic behavior is because of financial stress and drug abuse. However, when you look at the evidence it becomes clear that seventeen percent of men have “early exposure to family abuse”(Worden and Carlson 1227). Some families consist of a pet in the household which can sometimes have the man release it’s anger on the pet. Earlier in my essay I mentioned the scholarly article, “Pets in Danger: Exploring the link between domestic violence and animal abuse”, and Michelle Newberry examined an anonymous story from a woman “One evening I was home late and he warned me if I came home late again he would hurt my new kitten. A week later I arrived home a few minutes late due to roadworks and he made me watch while he put my kitten in the dryer”(Newberry 1). Overall, this quote shows that men sometimes use pets in the family as a source to release their anger; this validates my claim that animal abuse does have a correlation with domestic violence.

To conclude, these articles and journals prove my claim that animal abuse provokes psychological damage that creates antisocial behavior and a narcissist personality on human beings which increases the amount of domestic violence cases in the United States. Humans don’t realize the amount of damage that is being created after acting on animal abuse. Millions of cases in the United States are being tracked and result in the fact that most criminals have a correlation with animal abuse and domestic violence. People should raise awareness on this topic because animals have the same rights as us and domestic violence cases should decrease. Aswell, children witnessing animal abuse can lead to aggressive behavior due to antisocial behavior. Although domestic violence may seem of concern to only a small group of people in the United States, it should in fact concern anyone who cares about animal rights being violated or anyone who knows that is experiencing domestic violence. Ultimately, what is at stake here is that the number of domestic violence cases will keep increasing in the United States if awareness isn’t raised about the correlation between animal abuse and domestic violence.

Works Cited

Arluke, Levin, and Carter Luke. “The Relationship of Animal Abuse to Violence and Other Forms of Antisocial Behavior”, 1 September 1999,  

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/088626099014009004. Accessed 2 March 2020.

Febres, Brasfield, Shorey, Elmquist , Ninnemann , Schonbrun, Temple, Recupero, and Gregory L. Stuart. “Adulthood Animal Abuse Among Men Arrested for Domestic Violence”, 30 April 2012, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/107780121454964. Accessed 2 March 2020.

Gullone, and Nerita Robertson. “The Relationship Between Bullying And Animal Abuse Behaviors In Adolescents: The importance of witnessing animal abuse”, October 2008, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0193397308000518. Accessed 2 March 2020.

Huecker, and William Smock. “Domestic Violence”. 27 October 2018, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499891/. Accessed 24 March 2020.

Martin, Glen. “I Just Don’t Get It: Why Do So Many People Treat Pets as Human Equals?”,  29 April 2019, https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/just-in/2016-05-23/i-just-dont-get-it-why-do-so-many-people-treat-pets-human. Accessed on 24 March 2020.

Newberry, Michelle. “Pets in danger: Exploring the link between domestic violence and animal abuse. Aggression and Violent Behavior”, 2006,

https://www.clinicalkey.com/#!/content/playContent/1-s2.0-S1359178916302002?returnurl=null&referrer=null. Accessed 2 March 2020.Worden, Bonnie E. Carlson. “Attitudes and Beliefs About Domestic Violence: Results Of A Public Survey”, 1 October 2005, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0886260505278531. Accessed on 22 April 2020.