Full Description
Animal maltreatment includes physical or sexual abuse, neglect, or hoarding of animals, and all states have laws prohibiting various forms of animal maltreatment. About one-half have statutory provisions mandating or allowing courts to order forensic mental health assessments of individuals convicted of animal maltreatment offenses. Yet there are few resources on this topic for mental health and legal professionals and none that offer guidance for evaluations in animal maltreatment cases.
Animal Maltreatment is the first book to provide an overview of animal maltreatment as a legal, clinical, and forensic issue. It offers guidance for mental health and legal professionals involved in the adjudication of animal maltreatment offenses, with a special focus on forensic mental health assessments in such cases. The book reviews the legal and social contexts of animal maltreatment and then describes research-based and clinical knowledge within the area. It offers perspectives on social and clinical responses in animal maltreatment cases and describes prospects for an area of forensic mental health assessment focused specifically on the forensic evaluation in cases of animal maltreatment. This is the first book that brings together descriptions of the characteristics of those who maltreat animals, factors associated with animal maltreatment behaviors, information about the impact on the animals themselves, and evaluations of offenders to assist courts in decisions about their rehabilitation. Animal Maltreatment will be of great benefit and interest to general and forensic psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers, as well as lawyers, legal scholars and students, veterinarians, humane law enforcement professionals, and others involved in animal welfare advocacy.
Contents
Foreword by Kirk Heilbrun ; About the Editors ; Contributors ; Introduction ; SECTION I: SOCIAL AND LEGAL CONTEXT FOR ANIMAL MALTREATMENT ; Chapter 1 Animal Maltreatment as a Social Problem ; Gary Patronek ; Chapter 2 Law and Animal Maltreatment ; Sandra R. Sylvester and Alexander G. von Fricken ; Chapter 3 Building a Knowledge Base for Social and Legal Concerns about Animal Maltreatment ; Thomas Grisso ; SECTION II: THEORY AND RESEARCH ON ANIMAL MALTREATMENT ; Chapter 4 Understanding Intentional Animal Maltreatment ; Lacey Levitt ; Chapter 5 The Relation of Animal Maltreatment to General Aggression ; Emily Patterson-Kane ; Chapter 6 Understanding Animal Neglect and Hoarding ; Gary Patronek and Jane Nathanson ; SECTION III: RESPONDING TO ANIMAL MALTREATMENT ; Chapter 7 Understanding the Effects of Maltreatment on Animal Welfare ; Lila Miller and Gary Patronek ; Chapter 8 Social Responses to Animal Maltreatment Offenders: Neglect and Hoarding ; Catherine Ayers, Mary Dozier, and Christiana Bratiotis ; Chapter 9 Social Responses to Animal Maltreatment Offenders: Cruelty and Sexual Abuse ; Lisa Lunghofer ; SECTION IV: FORENSIC EVALUATIONS IN ANIMAL MALTREATMENT CASES ; Chapter 10 Conceptualizing Forensic Animal Maltreatment Evaluations ; Lacey Levitt and Thomas Grisso ; Chapter 11 Methods for Forensic Animal Maltreatment Evaluations ; Philip Tedeschi ; Chapter 12 Practice and Ethics in Forensic Animal Maltreatment Evaluations ; Terry Kukor, Daniel Davis, and Kenneth Weiss ; Index
