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). 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 are most likely 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.

The research question that I have chosen is “Does animal abuse have a correlation between domestic violence” and I am interested in this question because all around the world pets and animals are being hurt physically, sometimes pet owners like to release their anger and in industrial slaughterhouses chickens are killed either by boiled water or electrified. This is relevant to social justice because pets and animals deserve the same amount of rights as we do. “Just because cats, dogs, cows, pigs, and other animals were born in bodies different from ours doesn’t make then any less worthy of equal rights of bodily autonomy and freedom”(Jones) This quote supports that it is relevant to social justice because even if animals are borned in different bodies it does not mean that they shouldnt deserve the same amount of rights as us humans.

I will be gathering research this week on March 27th in order to add on to my research essay. I plan to use the sources that I gathered on the CCNY database because they are more reliable. This week on March 27th at 3pm I will gather information on what “domestic violence is”, “what animal abuse is”, and “how animal abuse is connected to “domestic violence”.

My audience reading this proposal are people who are environmentally friendly and deeply about animals. Also people that are researching how animal abuse and domestic violence are connected, for example parents that have children that bully at school will also be interested in reading this inquiry essay. I will be using the academic journal, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, “The relationship between bullying and animal abuse behaviors in adolescents: The importance of witnessing animal abuse” (Gullone and Robertson) as a model essay to help me write my research essay. I will be using this article to help me guide and create my research essay because the way Gullone and Robertson wrote their journal made it seem clear and informative. It was clear and informative because they used a lot of statistics in their writing and also reference past stories that supported their claim that animal abuse had a relationship with bullying.

So far the work that I will be using for my inquiry essay will be the articles and journals that I used for my sourced based essay, and I have researched new articles that can contribute to making my research essay more informative.