Book Review: Goodney-Lea, S. R. (2007). Delinquency and Animal Cruelty: Myths and Realities About Social Pathology. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing. 166 pp

• Author: Suzanne E. Tallichet
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016808329292
• Published date: 01 September 2009
• Date: 01 September 2009
• Subject Matter: Articles

Criminal Justice Review
Book Reviews
Volume 34 Number 3
September 2009 450-467
© 2009 Georgia State University
Goodney-Lea, S. R. (2007). Delinquency and Animal Cruelty:
Research Foundation, Inc.
http://cjr.sagepub.com
Myths and Realities About Social Pathology. New York: LFB
hosted at
Scholarly Publishing. 166 pp.
http://online.sagepub.com
DOI: 10.1177/0734016808329292
As compelling as several recent studies have been in establishing a probable link
between youthful animal cruelty and later adult interpersonal violence, this relationship is
certainly worth revisiting. Essentially, this is the basis for Suzanne Goodney-Lea’s research
presented in her book, Delinquency and Animal Cruelty: Myths and Realities about Social
Pathology. Specifically, she sets out to show that there is no association between animal
abuse and later acts of human violence, arguing that animal cruelty is more common than
we may suspect and that we have yet to fully explore the effects of other antisocial behav-
iors relative to adult violence. Rather, thanks to the work of animal advocates and the
media, she maintains that this link may be more culturally popular than it is empirically
reliable.
Goodney-Lea’s study is both quantitative and qualitative. In the quantitative part, she
uses data previously collected by a clinical psychologist from 570 young men and women
recruited for the study and oversampled for a range of antisocial behaviors. In addition to
the usual demographics (age, race, gender, and education), she analyzes their dichotomized
responses to the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) asking whether they engaged in a
range of both violent and nonviolent behaviors during their childhood or adolescence
(trouble at school, suspension, expulsion, fighting, fighting with weapons, animal cruelty,
bullying, hurting siblings, lying, stealing, vandalism, firesetting, and juvenile arrest) and as
adults (fighting and fighting with weapons after the age of 15). She tests...