Suchergebnisse

This paper examines the relationship between childhood cruelty toward animals and aggressive behavior among criminals and noncriminals in adulthood. Data were derived from personal interviews with 152 criminals and noncriminals in Kansas and Connecticut. A standardized, closed, and open-ended interview, requiring approximately 1-2 hours to complete, was administered to all subjects. Aggressiveness was defined by behavioral criteria rather than by reason for incarceration. Childhood cruelty toward animals occurred to a significantly greater degree among aggressive criminals than among nonaggressive criminals or noncriminals. Additionally, the occurrence of more than 40 cases of extreme animal crielty facilitated the development of a preliminary classification of nine distinct motivations for animal cruelty. Finally, family violence, particularly paternal abuse and alcoholism, were significantly more common among aggressive criminals with a history of childhood cruelty toward animals.

AbstractWith the growing impact of legal regulation of clinical practice, students of medicine and other clinical specialties need to know how these developing legal concepts apply to their future practices.

We attempted to place Coyne's (1976) interpersonal theory of depression in grave danger of refutation among a highly specialized psychiatric sample (76 criminal defendants referred for psychiatric evaluation). We assessed whether mood-disordered subjects scored lower on an index
of social contact than nondepressed subjects. Consistent with interpersonal theory, depressed subjects obtained lower scores on the social contact measure than nondepressed subjects — to our knowledge, the first results to support the diagnostic specificity component of Coyne's
theory among a clinical sample. Number of co-morbid diagnoses was not significantly related to social contact. It appears that Coyne's theory possesses explanatory power, even when subjected to a relatively severe empirical test.