“…Cats, dogs, rodents, birds and reptiles were the most common victims of the abuse and the most common methods of cruelty were shooting and direct physical aggression like 'hitting, beating, kicking, or throwing an animal against the wall' (Flynn, 2000, p. 89). Retrospective studies confirm the 'progression thesis', or 'graduation hypothesis' (for discussion, see Flynn, 2011), which suggests that children who deliberately harm other animals will 'graduate' to deliberately harm humans, while others confirm the 'desensitization thesis', 'which is more concerned with the general levels of callous behaviour which permeate modern life' (Taylor and Signal, 2008). In a study of retrospective accounts of 64 male sex offenders, David Tingle et al (1986) found that nearly half (48%) of convicted rapists and 30 per cent of convicted child molesters reported having been involved in childhood incidents of cruelty to other animals (cited in Taylor and Signal (2008)).…”