Felthous Alan R, Calhoun Amanda J
Forensic Psychiatry Division, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 1438 South Grand Blvd., Saint Louis, Missouri, 63104, U.S.A.
Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Behav Sci Law. 2018 Nov;36(6):752-765. doi: 10.1002/bsl.2390.
Studies of animal maltreatment and of untoward or abnormal aggression predominantly involve male subjects, raising the question as to whether females who engage in such behaviors are like, or fundamentally different than, their male counterparts. Inquiry to address this issue could pertain to gender similarities and differences; moreover, it could provide greater understanding of the behavior itself, in this case, animal maltreatment. Of the various patterns of animal maltreatment in the literature, there are enough studies with gender addressed to allow some observations on two patterns: animal cruelty in childhood and animal hoarding. Animal cruelty among girls may be more common than is widely assumed, but substantial recurrent cruelty appears, as expected, to be more common among males and is consistent with conduct disorder occurring more frequently among boys. Females, especially older females who live alone, predominate among animal hoarders, whose psychology is altogether different from those who engage in antisocial cruelty. The potential significance of these observations is discussed within the contexts of developmental and gender psychology.
对动物虐待以及不良或异常攻击行为的研究主要涉及男性受试者，这就引发了一个问题：从事此类行为的女性与男性同行是相似还是根本不同。解决这个问题的探究可能涉及性别异同；此外，它还能让人们更好地理解这种行为本身，在本案例中即动物虐待行为。在文献中关于动物虐待的各种模式中，有足够多涉及性别的研究，从而可以对两种模式进行一些观察：童年时期的动物虐待行为和动物囤积行为。女孩中的动物虐待行为可能比普遍认为的更为常见，但大量反复出现的虐待行为，正如预期的那样，在男性中更为常见，并且与男孩中更频繁出现的品行障碍相一致。在动物囤积者中，女性尤其是独居的老年女性占主导，其心理与那些实施反社会虐待行为的人完全不同。这些观察结果的潜在意义将在发展心理学和性别心理学的背景下进行讨论。
