Research suggests that negative experiences within the family serve as risk factors in development of disruptive behavior disorders. In order to establish whether certain family risk factors have a specific relationship to the development of childhood animal cruelty, it is necessary to compare family risk factors of children who are disruptive to children who are both disruptive and abuse animals. In this study, the charts of children in residential treatment who had conduct behavior problems (N-CTA) and children with conduct behavior problems and histories of cruelty to animals (CTA) were reviewed. Children were assessed on histories of physical child abuse, sexual child abuse, paternal alcoholism, paternal unavailability, and domestic violence. It was hypothesized that children in the CTA group would have greater histories than children in the N-CTA group on family risk factors, listed above. The results indicate that children in the CTA group had significantly greater histories than children in the N-CTA group on family risk factors of physical and/or child abuse. In addition, children who exhibited animal cruelty were approximately twice more likely to have been physically and/or sexually abused or to have been exposed to domestic violence in comparison to children who did not exhibit CTA. Tables, references