Chapter 15 – Killing Humans

Acts of cruelty to animals are symptomatic of a deep mental disturbance. Research in psychology and criminology shows that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals do not stop there—many of them move on to their fellow humans. Murderers often start out by killing and torturing animals as kids. A survey of psychiatric patients who had repeatedly tortured dogs and cats when they were young found that all of them had high levels of aggression toward people as well. According to a New South Wales newspaper, a police study in Australia revealed that 100% of sexual homicide offenders examined had a history of animal cruelty. To researchers, a fascination with cruelty to animals is a red flag in the backgrounds of serial killers and rapists. These are the kids who never learned it is wrong to poke out a puppy's eyes. Because abusers target individuals who are less dominant than themselves, crimes against animals, spouses, children, and the elderly often go hand in hand. Children who are animal abusers may be repeating lessons that they learned or practiced at home; often abused themselves, they subsequently react to anger or frustration with violence. Their violence is often directed at animals because they are the only individuals in the family who are more vulnerable than themselves. There are definite connections between animal abuse, domestic violence, and child abuse. Animal control officers and spousal/child abuse investigators are often required to share information when animal abuse or domestic abuse is found in a home. Cross-reporting requirements have helped foster early intervention. Humans, like certain other primates, often go beyond the boundary of simple forms of hunting, even beyond the killing of pets, and kill other humans for one reason or another. Some humans even appear to enjoy or, for some reason, require the process of killing members of their own species. The killing of offspring by conspecific adult feral animals is routine. Male lions, for instance, are well-known participants in infanticide, eliminating offspring that were produced by other males. A wide assortment of species from microscopic rotifers and insects to fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals (including certain nonhuman primates) do it as well. There may be other reasons for eliminating offspring. Besides maximizing one's own fitness by eliminating the genes of former dominants, it may sometimes be a part of natural selection to cull runts and young with anatomical abnormalities in order to maximize the survivability of the strongest offspring. In certain cases, it may even be a common practice to feed upon the young. Infanticide is not restricted to nonhumans. It, in fact, has been quite common in human populations around the world at earlier times, and it is found in contemporary populations as well, although to a lesser degree. Infant cannibalism is even found on occasion. Reasons for human cannibalism, including the eating of infants, have been (1) sanctioned by a cultural norm (e.g., in endocannibalism and exocannibalism by certain cultures); (2) necessity in extreme situations of famine; and (3) mental illness, insanity, or social deviancy. Abortion is one of the most common medical procedures performed in the United States each year. More than 40% of all women will end a pregnancy by abortion at some time in their reproductive lives. While women of every social class seek terminations, the typical woman who ends her pregnancy is either young, white, unmarried, poor, or over the age of 40. In the United States and worldwide, abortion (known also as elective termination of pregnancy) remains common. It is the killing of adults that appears to be relatively rare among nonhuman animals. Even in expressions of agonistic behavior in which two individuals are vying for the alpha position, death is unusual unless both possess alpha qualities. So why do animals kill infants more readily than adults? Researchers on the topic state that it is simply because “infants are easier to kill.” While this may be true, there may be underlying reasons for infanticide, as mentioned earlier ( Hausfater and Hrdy, 1984). While there seem to be reasons for the killing of humans and warfare, the nature of killing lies in the human mind, and the desire to kill varies tremendously among people. Often, these variations are expressions of personality differences. Family violence and abuse are among the most prevalent forms of interpersonal violence that are carried out against women and children (both young boys and girls; Widom and Maxfield, 2001). As stated by the US Department of Justice, the sexual abuse of a child should never be considered “just a family matter.” It is not only a crime against an individual, but an individual who is an innocent victim, and who has little defense against the instigator. “The FBI estimates that 72 of every 100,000 females in the United States were raped in that year. About 28% of victims were raped by husbands or boyfriends, 35% by acquaintances, and 5% by other relatives. A 2010 report shows that rape cases were lower in that year than in several of the previous years, 27.3 rapes occurring per 100,000 citizens,” and the number of cases appear to continue declining over the years. Also covered in this chapter is ethnic cleansing, genocide, murderers, serial killers, honor killings, the attractive nature of violence, gangs and hatred, warfare, and the origin of aggressive behavior in humans. It is doubtful that isolated groups of people ever got along. They had to compete with one another for territorial rights and the resources that would keep them alive, lacking trust in any other hominine forms or in conspecific members of groups other than their own. In the process, they sometimes entered altercations and killed one another for a variety of what appeared to be legitimate reasons. As the groups got larger, skirmishes turned to war, and more people were killed in the process. Our governments and news agencies never reveal the true nature of war by humans. Men and women who fight these wars often are not aware of what the war is all about. Many fight these wars out of sheer patriotism, and many of them die in the process or suffer the loss of limbs and a chance to ever lead a life they could have had if they had not partaken in battle, and our dominant leaders know this. And for their sacrifice, do they get rewarded? No, they do not. When they return home, they are expected to carry on just as they had done before suffering great emotional and physical trauma. In being one of these people who devote their life to patriotism or talking with them (if they care to talk at all about it), we come to understand something about the true atrocities of war. The glorification of war, as seen in our movies and on television, is a case of major deception. Many humans may possibly consider refraining from war if the truth was revealed. In The Most Dangerous Animal (a book that I sincerely believe everyone should read), D.L. Smith (2007) briefly describes the naked truth behind war. “War is mangled bodies and shattered minds. It is the stomach-churning reek of decaying corpses, of burning flesh and feces. It is rape, disease and displacement. It is terrible beyond comprehension, but,” he says, “it is not senseless. Wars are purposeful. They are fought for resources, lebensraum, oil, gold, food and water or peculiarly abstract and imaginary goods like God, honor, race, democracy and destiny.”