Using National Incident-Based Reporting System Data to Explore Animal Cruelty Incidents that Occur with Intimate Partner and Family Violence: A Brief Report

Purpose

This brief report extends what is known about “the link” between animal cruelty and intimate partner violence (IPV) and family violence (FV). Specifically, it uses animal cruelty data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to explore characteristics of incidents where animal cruelty and IPV or FV occur together.

Methods

This exploratory study analyzes 278 animal cruelty incidents that occurred with IPV or FV from the 2020 NIBRS data using descriptive and bivariate analyses.

Results

Findings from the NIBRS animal cruelty data suggest the importance of parsing out specific intimate and family relationships. While these patterns are similar to IPV and FV that occur with crimes outside of animal cruelty, previous research on the link has not examined these relationships. This study also found the majority of animal cruelty incidents that occur with IPV or FV end in an arrest. No previous work has identified arrest patterns in these cases.

Conclusions

Although exploratory, this study highlights the value of NIBRS animal cruelty data and the opportunity to gain insights at the incident level of details that were previously unavailable from other animal cruelty studies that consider IPV and FV. This study provides a foundation for future research that can inform theoretical development and prevention efforts related to the link.