In defining "animal cruelty," the book relies on the consensus of most laws in the United States, which define it as failure to provide adequate food, water, and shelter, or the use of physical force to leave a mark or otherwise cause injury to an animal. The sample sizes for this study were 50 violent and 50 nonviolent offenders, which were randomly derived by computer with the assistance of institutional staff at a maximum-security prison in Florida. Interviews were completed with 97 of these inmates between July 1995 and April 1996. The majority of offenses committed by violent offenders involved murder or attempted murder and sex offenses. With the exception of one offense of possession of a firearm by a felon, all of the most serious offenses committed by the nonviolent inmates were property crimes. Among the variables measured in the interviews were cruelty to animals in each of four categories (wild, farm, pet, and stray animals); the frequency and seriousness of cruelty committed by the subject; subject response to the cruelty he committed; cruelty to animals observed by the subject, along with its frequency and seriousness; and the subject's response to the observed cruelty. Study findings support previous research in determining that violent offenders who committed crimes as adults were significantly more likely than nonviolent offenders to have committed childhood acts of cruelty against animals in general and pet and stray animals in particular. Future longitudinal research is recommended. 13 tables, 112 references, and a subject index