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| {{Original research|date=November 2007}}
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| '''Zoosadism''' is a term coined by [[Ernest Borneman]] refering to [[pleasure]] (sometimes [[Human sexuality#sexual pleasure|sexual pleasure]]) derived from [[cruelty to animals]]. Acts of zoosadism are often a precursor to the abuse of humans.<ref name=macdonald>{{cite journal|author=J. M. MacDonald|title=The Threat to Kill|journal=American Journal of Psychiatry|volume=120|issue=2|pages=125-130|year=1963}}</ref>
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| ==Research==
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| [[Image:Zoosadism questionnaire.png|thumb|200px|'Forensic Nurse's animal abuse diagnostic questionnaire]]
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| Schedel-Stupperich ([[2001]]) state that some [[horse-ripping]] incidences have a sexual connotation, 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 8 of their sample of 36 sexual murderers showed an interest in [[zoosexual]] acts.
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| In [[1971]], American researchers profiled the typical animal harmer as being a nine-and-a-half-year-old boy, with an IQ of 91 and a history of [[Child abuse|gross parental abuse]]. The UK "[[Young Abusers Project]]" sees children as young as five who have a record of sexual offences or 'extremely' violent behaviour.The author comments that it is:
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| : ''this combination of extreme "cruelty to animals, if also accompanied by a sexual interest in animals, [which] is a high-risk indicator of a future sex offender."'' [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/741856.stm]
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| 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]]'':
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| :''"the [[FBI]] has found that a history of cruelty to animals is one of the traits that regularly appears in its computer records of [[serial rape|serial rapists]] and [[serial killer|murderers]], and the standard diagnostic and treatment manual for psychiatric and emotional disorders lists cruelty to animals as a diagnostic criterion for [[conduct disorder]]s."'' [http://www.tulsaspca.org/articles/abuse_history.html] and
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| :''"A survey of psychiatric patients who had repeatedly tortured dogs and cats found all of them had high levels of aggression toward people as well."'' [http://www.tulsaspca.org/articles/abuse_history.html]
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| This is a commonly reproduced finding, and for this reason, violence (including sexually oriented violence) towards animals, is considered a serious warning sign of potential serious violence towards humans.
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| Over the past 50 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 delinquency|juvenile offenders]], and generalizations from such studies have often been criticized post-publication as being tainted by circular reasoning, [[argument from incredulity|arguments from incredulity]], and other fallacies:
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| :''"There are different people who engage in sex with animals and not the kind of interaction but first and foremost the quality of the relationship seems to distinguish between them. This emotional relation or at least the respect they show towards the will of the involved animal should be more closely investigated, when conducting research that includes [[bestiality]]. Because [it is] this, the quality of the interaction and the relationship – that may be loving, neutral, or violent – and not the fact of a sexual interaction [which] is important, and provides information for a better understanding of bestiality and zoophilia and their significance in relation to other phenomena."''
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| :Source: Andrea Beetz -- "Love, Violence, and Sexuality in Relationships between Humans and Animals"
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| Kidd and Kidd ([[1987]]) identified that:
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| :''"most of these older research and models rarely took the variety of possible interactions and relations into account, studying the physical acts in isolation."''
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| Andrea Beetz, comments that perhaps because of this:
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| :''"In most [popular] references to bestiality, violence towards the animal is automatically implied. That sexual approaches to animals may not need force or violence but rather, sensitivity, or knowledge of animal behavior, is rarely taken into consideration."''
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| In the same manner, Dr. LaFarge, an assistant professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the New Jersey Medical School and sex therapist, who is the Director of Counseling at the [[ASPCA|American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]] and works with the [[New York (state)|New York]] correctional system, is quoted in a media article (1999) as reporting that:
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| :''"it's important to make the distinction [between animal sexual abuse and zoophilia]"''
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| and that:
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| :''"There is no evidence yet that zoophilia leads to sexual deviation, but that's not to say that's not the case. We do make the link between other forms of physical violence against animals as being a predicator of physical violence against women and children. I would go on to say that someone who is sexually violent with an animal ... is a predator and might very well do that toward people."'' [http://www.riverfronttimes.com/issues/1999-12-15/news2_full.html]
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| Professors Weinberg and Williams of the [[Kinsey Institute]] stated in testimony to the Missouri House (1999) that:
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| :''"No one can argue about the objective harm resulting from a behavior like [[rape]]. Such harm arises from the absence of consent and the [[Psychological trauma|trauma]] that accompanies and follows from the act ... Our research suggests that forcing sex on an unwilling animal is rare among adult zoophiles ... The question of consent is usually conflated with the question of harm, which we believe to be the better question. Zoophiles appear to be extremely caring and concerned for their animal(s) and people who know them would be hard put to claim abuse. Implicit in [the bill] is that sex with an animal in itself constitutes abuse."''
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| Beetz (2002) states categorically that:
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| :''"Former, as well as the here presented research, suggests that zoophilia itself does not represent a clinically significant problem and is not necessarily combined with other clinically significant problems and disorders, even if it may be difficult for some professionals to accept this."''
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| ==Legal status==
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| In the [[United States]], depictions of animal cruelty are in violation of federal law. The law, in effect since January 2006, makes illegal "any visual or auditory depiction, including any photograph, motion-picture film, video recording, electronic image, or sound recording of conduct in which a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded, or killed, if such conduct is illegal under Federal law or the law of the State in which the creation, sale, or possession takes place..."<ref>[http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00000048----000-.html US Code TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 3 > § 48]</ref>
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| ==Insects==
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| Zoosadism towards [[insect]]s is frequently exhibited by people who never go on to engage in any type of crime involving the harming of a person or a legally protected [[entity]]. The classic example of this subvariety of "schoolyard viciousness" is the child who pulls off a fly's wings. The [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] writer [[Plutarch]], in his ''[[Parallel Lives]]'', claims that the Emperor [[Domitian]] amused himself by catching flies and impaling them with needles. The contemporary American humorist [[David Sedaris]] has said that he enjoys feeding insects to spiders and watching as they devour them.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4247938 | format = php | title = Fresh Air from WHYY | date= 2004-12-28}}</ref>
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| ==Notable zoosadists==
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| * [[Jeffrey Dahmer]]
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| * [[John Travers]]
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| * [[Henry Lee Lucas]]
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| * [[Brendan McMahon]]
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| * [[Robert Garrow]]
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| * [[Dennis Rader]]
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| * [[Rostislav Bogoslevsky]]<ref>
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| [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1178708624234&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Police arrest suspected serial killer | Jerusalem Post<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
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| * [[John Duffy and David Mulcahy]]<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/story/0,11917,1546812,00.html Childhood cruelty to animals may signal violence in future | UK news | The Guardian<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
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| * [[Richard Chase]]<ref>[http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/chase/index_1.html CrimeLibrary.com/Serial Killers/Truly Weird & Shocking/Richard Trenton Chase: The Vampire of Sacramento<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
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| ==In popular culture==
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| * [[Hannibal Lecter]], the popular character from a series of novels by [[Thomas Harris]], was described to have tortured animals as a child in ''[[Red Dragon]]''. Later, in ''[[Hannibal Rising]]'''s section on Hannibal's early childhood, this is apparently proved wrong; Hannibal is seen being kind to various animals, from feeding swans to befriending his family's horse, and no mention is made of any animal torture.
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| * [[Dexter Morgan]], from the novels by [[Jeff Lindsay]] and the later [[Showtime]] [[Dexter (TV series)|television series]], displayed [[sociopathic]] tendencies such as animal killing as a young child.
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| * [[Patrick Bateman]], the [[protagonist]] of [[American Psycho]] by [[Bret Easton Ellis]] tortures to death a small dog and a rat. This does not appear in the film version, although at one point he believes that an ATM wants him to feed it a kitten.
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| * A character in the [[Stephen King]] novel [[IT (novel)|''IT'']] murders animals by placing them in an old freezer.
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| * Young [[Michael Myers (Halloween)|Michael Myers]] is seen having murdered small animals and cats in [[Halloween (2007)|the 2007 remake]] of the film [[Halloween (1978 film)|''Halloween'']].
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| * A teenaged [[Freddy Krueger]] is seen murdering animals by crushing them in the film ''[[Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare]]''.
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| *In the cartoon series [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]], the episode ''Appa's Lost Days'' had a section dealing with the main character's pet sky-bison, [[Appa]], being subjected to being whipped and starved by a zoo trainer, but later escaped from the zoo.
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| ==See also==
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| * [[Animal abuse]]
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| * [[Cat-burning]]
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| * [[Zoophilia]]
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| ==References==
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| {{reflist}}
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| ==External links==
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| * [http://www.forensicnursemag.com/articles/411clinical.html Four-legged Forensics: What Forensic Nurses Need to Know and Do About Animal Cruelty]
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| [[Category:Paraphilias]]
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| [[Category:Animal welfare]]
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| [[Category:Zoosexuality]]
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| [[Category:Abuse]]
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| [[ru:Зоосадизм]]
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