Zoosadism
Encyclopedia
Zoosadism is a term coined by Ernest Borneman
referring to pleasure
(sometimes sexual pleasure) derived from cruelty to animals
. Zoosadism is part of the Macdonald triad
, a set of three behaviors that are a precursor to sociopathic behavior
.
incidences have a sexual connection, and in general, the link between sadistic sexual acts with animals and sadistic practices with humans or lust murders has been heavily researched. Some murderers tortured animals in their childhood, with some of them also practicing bestiality. Ressler et al. (1988) found that 36% of sexual murderers described themselves as having abused animals during childhood, with 46% of them reporting that they had abused animals during adolescence, and (1986) that eight of their sample of thirty-six sexual murderers showed an interest in zoosexual acts.
In 1971, American researchers profiled the typical animal harmer as being a nine-and-a-half-year-old boy, with an I.Q.
of 91 and a history of gross parental abuse
. The UK "Young Abusers Project" sees children as young as five who have a record of sexual offences or "extremely" violent behavior. Of such people, child psychiatrist Dr Eileen Vizard, commented:
Dr Vizard commented:
Studies have shown that individuals who enjoy or are willing to inflict harm on animals are more likely to do so to humans. One of the known warning signs of certain psychopathologies, including antisocial personality disorder
, is a history of torturing pets and small animals. According to the New York Times:
Alan R. Felthous reported in his paper "Aggression Against Cats, Dogs, and People" (1980) that
This is a commonly reproduced finding, and for this reason, violence (including sexually oriented violence) toward animals is considered a serious warning sign of potential serious violence towards humans.
Over the past fifty years, modern research has confirmed that not all sexual activity with animals is violent nor dangerous. This preconception has been criticized by researchers, for the bias that can result within bona fide research into zoosadism and abuse. Older research often focused on known abusers such as violent juvenile offenders
, and generalizations from such studies have often been criticized post-publication as being tainted by circular reasoning, arguments from incredulity
, and other fallacies:
Kidd and Kidd (1987) identified that
Andrea Beetz comments that, perhaps because of this,
In the same manner, Dr. Stephanie Lafarge, an assistant professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the New Jersey Medical School and sex therapist, who is the Director of Counseling at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and works with the New York correctional system, is quoted in a 1999 newspaper article as saying that "It's important to make the distinction [between animal sexual abuse and zoophilia]" and that
Professors Martin Weinberg & Colin Williams of the Kinsey Institute stated in testimony to the Missouri House in 1999:
Beetz states categorically:
, since 2010, it has been a federal offense to create or distribute "obscene" depictions of "living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians ... subjected to serious bodily injury". This statute replaced an overly broad 1999 statute which was found unconstitutional in United States v. Stevens
.
s is also exhibited by some. The classic example of this subvariety of "schoolyard viciousness" is the child who pulls off a fly's wings. The Roman
writer Plutarch
, in his Parallel Lives
, claims that the Emperor Domitian
amused himself by catching flies and impaling them with needles.
Ernest Borneman
Ernst Wilhelm Julius Bornemann was a German crime writer, filmmaker, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, jazz musician, jazz critic, psychoanalyst, sexologist, and committed socialist. All these diverse interests, he claimed, had a common root in his lifelong insatiable curiosity...
referring to pleasure
Pleasure
Pleasure describes the broad class of mental states that humans and other animals experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental states such as happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria...
(sometimes sexual pleasure) derived from cruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with...
. Zoosadism is part of the Macdonald triad
Macdonald triad
The Macdonald triad is a set of three behavioral characteristics that are associated with sociopathic behavior. The triad was first identified by J.M...
, a set of three behaviors that are a precursor to sociopathic behavior
Psychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
.
Research
Schedel-Stupperich (2001) state that some horse-rippingHorse-ripping
Horse-ripping, or horse slashing, is an animal cruelty phenomenon involving serious injuries in horses, often involving mutilation of their genitalia and slashing of the flank or neck. It has not been established, however, how often these injuries are caused by human cruelty...
incidences have a sexual connection, and in general, the link between sadistic sexual acts with animals and sadistic practices with humans or lust murders has been heavily researched. Some murderers tortured animals in their childhood, with some of them also practicing bestiality. Ressler et al. (1988) found that 36% of sexual murderers described themselves as having abused animals during childhood, with 46% of them reporting that they had abused animals during adolescence, and (1986) that eight of their sample of thirty-six sexual murderers showed an interest in zoosexual acts.
In 1971, American researchers profiled the typical animal harmer as being a nine-and-a-half-year-old boy, with an I.Q.
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
of 91 and a history of gross parental abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
. The UK "Young Abusers Project" sees children as young as five who have a record of sexual offences or "extremely" violent behavior. Of such people, child psychiatrist Dr Eileen Vizard, commented:
Dr Vizard commented:
Studies have shown that individuals who enjoy or are willing to inflict harm on animals are more likely to do so to humans. One of the known warning signs of certain psychopathologies, including antisocial personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder is described by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition , as an Axis II personality disorder characterized by "...a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood...
, is a history of torturing pets and small animals. According to the New York Times:
Alan R. Felthous reported in his paper "Aggression Against Cats, Dogs, and People" (1980) that
This is a commonly reproduced finding, and for this reason, violence (including sexually oriented violence) toward animals is considered a serious warning sign of potential serious violence towards humans.
Over the past fifty years, modern research has confirmed that not all sexual activity with animals is violent nor dangerous. This preconception has been criticized by researchers, for the bias that can result within bona fide research into zoosadism and abuse. Older research often focused on known abusers such as violent juvenile offenders
Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...
, and generalizations from such studies have often been criticized post-publication as being tainted by circular reasoning, arguments from incredulity
Argument from ignorance
Argument from ignorance, also known as argumentum ad ignorantiam or "appeal to ignorance" , is a fallacy in informal logic. It asserts that a proposition is true because it has not yet been proven false, it is "generally accepted"...
, and other fallacies:
Kidd and Kidd (1987) identified that
Andrea Beetz comments that, perhaps because of this,
In the same manner, Dr. Stephanie Lafarge, an assistant professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the New Jersey Medical School and sex therapist, who is the Director of Counseling at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and works with the New York correctional system, is quoted in a 1999 newspaper article as saying that "It's important to make the distinction [between animal sexual abuse and zoophilia]" and that
Professors Martin Weinberg & Colin Williams of the Kinsey Institute stated in testimony to the Missouri House in 1999:
Beetz states categorically:
Legal status
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, since 2010, it has been a federal offense to create or distribute "obscene" depictions of "living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians ... subjected to serious bodily injury". This statute replaced an overly broad 1999 statute which was found unconstitutional in United States v. Stevens
United States v. Stevens
United States v. Stevens, 559 U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 1577 was an April 20, 2010 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled that the version of 18 U.S.C...
.
Insects
Zoosadism towards insectInsect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s is also exhibited by some. The classic example of this subvariety of "schoolyard viciousness" is the child who pulls off a fly's wings. The Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
writer Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, in his Parallel Lives
Parallel Lives
Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly called Parallel Lives or Plutarch's Lives, is a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, written in the late 1st century...
, claims that the Emperor Domitian
Domitian
Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...
amused himself by catching flies and impaling them with needles.
Notable zoosadists
- Dennis RaderDennis RaderDennis Lynn Rader is an American serial killer who murdered ten people in Sedgwick County , between 1974 and 1991....
- Kenny Glenn
- Jim JonesJim JonesJames Warren "Jim" Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip.Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in...
- Rostislav BogoslevskyRostislav BogoslevskyRostislav Bogoslevsky is a suspected Israeli serial killer, believed by police to have committed two murders, an additional attempted murder, and of killing approximately 500 cats. Bogoslevsky said that he hated street cats, and that he was doing the municipality a favor by reducing their numbers...
- John Duffy and David MulcahyJohn Duffy and David MulcahyJohn Duffy and David Mulcahy are two British rapists and serial killers who together attacked numerous women at railway stations in the south of England through the 1980s...
- Richard ChaseRichard ChaseRichard Trenton Chase was a United States serial killer who killed six people in the span of a month in Sacramento, California...