title: Interpersonal barriers to stopping animal abuse: exploring the role of adolescent friendship norms and breeches.
abstract: Research into bystander apathy has focused on the barriers to intervening when the perpetrators and witnesses of violence are strangers. Although violence also occurs in the presence of friends, family, and other close ties, it is unclear how these affiliations constrain the behavior of bystanders in these situations. To explore this question, qualitative interviews were conducted with 25 adolescents who were bystanders to animal abuse committed and/or witnessed by family members, friends, or known others. Most interviewees claimed that, despite feeling disturbed by the animal abuse, they did little if anything to stop the abuse and did not report it to adult authority figures. Friendship norms and breeches presented most interviewees with significant barriers that either stopped or tempered their interventions. Implications of these findings are discussed for educating adolescents to intervene on behalf of abused animals.
authors.affiliation: Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA. aarluke@gmail.com
authors.forename: Arnold
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arluke
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012938:Social Perception; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States