Bestiality and zoophilia - Evolve For Animals

Bestiality and ZoophiliaArluke (1998) studied criminal behavior among 153 individuals whohad a record of intentional animal cruelty. Seventy percent of these animalabusers also had records for other crimes: related to drugs, property, publicdisorder or violence. Compared to a matched-control group with norecord of animal abuse, the animal abusers were five times more likely tohave committed violent crimes towards people (Arluke 1998; Arluke et al.1999). Schiff, Louw and Ascione (1999) found that among a sample of 117incarcerated men, 63.3% of those who had committed aggressive crimesreported committing animal cruelty in childhood, compared to only 10.5%of the men who had committed non-aggressive crimes. Overall, the linkbetween aggression towards animals and aggression towards humansseems well established. Variations in the rates of reported animal abuse arevery likely caused by different methods of data collection and the frequencyand severity of the violent acts.A high prevalence of animal cruelty amongst a special sub-group ofcriminals—sex offenders—was documented in the following studies. Intheir investigation of sexual homicide perpetrators, Ressler et al. (1988,cited in Ascione 1993) found prevalence rates for animal cruelty of 36% inchildhood and 46% in adolescence. Among a sample of 27 juvenile, malesex offenders assessed by Beetz (2002), 37% admitted to having abusedanimals. Tingle et al. (1986) studied 64 male sex offenders and found that48% of the rapists and 30% of the child-molesters had reported animal cruelty.These numbers show that between a third and one half of the definitelyaggressive sex offenders, such as sex murderers and rapists, hadabused animals, while child molesters, of whom not necessarily all employviolence in their offenses, show somewhat lower rates.Sexual Contact with Animals Among Specific PopulationsA few studies have compared sexual contacts with animals among differentpopulations, mostly groups with a history of abuse, sex or non-sexoffending, or other clinical problems. A recent study by Ascione et al.(2003) provided information on the prevalence of animal cruelty and“touching an animal’s sex parts” among 1433 children aged 6 to 12 years,using checklists answered by the maternal caregivers. The sample wasdivided into three groups: a normative group with 540 children, a group of481 sexually abused children, and a group of 412 psychiatric outpatients.Overall, cruelty towards animals was reported for 3.1% of the normativegroup, 17.9% of the sexually abused group, and 15.6% of the psychiatricoutpatients. “Touching animals’ sex parts” was reported much less frequently:only 0.4% of the normative group and 0.9% of the psychiatric out-52 Beetz