The “Cycle of Violence”
"Children of violent homes often experience or witness sexual, domestic, or animal abuse and typically experience a combination of these. A significant percentage of child abuse victims go on to become violent abusers themselves. Numerous studies of this “cycle of violence” repeatedly illustrate two predominant roles that animal cruelty plays in the cycle: (1) The adult abuser uses dominance and violence toward animals, typically house pets, as a psychological weapon to manipulate, threaten, control, and hurt the human victims. (2) For many reasons, child abuse victims will often express their intense suffering through real or represented (stories, drawings) cruelty towards the same house pets or other animals. "