Animal Cruelty, Domestic Violence, and Social Disorganization in a Suburban Setting

ABSTRACT

Breaking away from a focus on the influence of individual characteristics on animal cruelty and guided by social disorganization theory, we investigated animal cruelty violations in block groups in a city in coastal Virginia. We discovered that block groups with higher levels of social disorganization, measured by economic disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, residential mobility, and family disruption, had higher levels of animal cruelty violations and reports of aggravated and simple domestic violence. The rates of animal cruelty violations were significantly correlated with aggravated domestic violence but not reports of simple domestic violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Animal Cruelty
• Social Disorganization
• Neighborhoods
• Domestic Violence

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Garland White

Garland F. White Ph.D. Department of Sociology, University of Washington. Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology, Old Dominion University Research interests: Animals and society Neighborhood based crime and deviant behavior.

Leslie-Dawn Quick

Leslie-Dawn Quick Ph.D. Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Old Dominion University. Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice & Legal Studies, Washburn University. Research interests: State Crime, Media and Crime, Inequality and Animals and Society.