Animal cruelty was much more accepted before. Look at how working animals were treated, a whale for the killing, etc etc. Bull and bear baiting, dog fighting, and so on. The only difference now is how many channels there are to put out the information, and, actually, our greater sensitivity against animal cruelty.
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Abstract
Background
The link between early traumatic experiences of abuse/neglect and criminal behaviour has been widely demonstrated. Less is known, however, about the relationship between these experiences and the development of psychopathic personality.
Objective
This study investigated childhood relational trauma in a group of violent offenders from Italy. We hypothesised a higher level of early relational trauma associated with higher scores on psychopathy.
Method
Twenty-two offenders convicted for violent crimes aged 22–60 (M=38, SD=11) participated in this study. Participants were selected by the Italian justice system for an experimental research programme aiming at the evaluation of psychopathic personality traits among violent offenders. Within the group, 14 participants (64%) had committed murder, 4 (18%) had committed rape, and 4 (18%) were convicted child sex offenders. The Traumatic Experience Checklist was used to assess childhood relational trauma; the Hare Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (PCL-R) was used to assess psychopathy.
Results
There was a high prevalence of childhood experiences of neglect and abuse among the offenders. Higher levels of childhood relational trauma were found among participants who obtained high scores on the PCL-R. There was also a significant negative association between age of first relational trauma and psychopathy scores.
Conclusions
Findings of this study suggest that an early exposure to relational trauma in childhood can play a relevant role in the development of more severe psychopathic traits.
So beating kids is probably not a good way to prevent psychopathy.