Crime, like Mother Nature, abhors a vacuum. It innovates and evolves to survive and is constantly seeking new opportunities to exploit.
But I never imagined I’d find a perfect example of that criminological truism in the world of dogs.
We call him Storm and my wife and I bought him six months ago. He’s a Labrador retriever who likes chasing his tail, barking at the TV when other dogs appear and is still working out his relationship with Milo, our cat.
Very quickly he has become an integral part of the family and the thought of Storm being stolen sends shivers down my spine.
Yet that’s what is happening across the country, with thieves selling dogs on or using them for breeding purposes.
According to the Scottish SPCA, dog thefts have risen by 170 per cent – and others put the figure at 250 per cent.
Police Scotland have issued guidance for dog owners about ensuring they have their pet microchipped, have up-to-date information on its collar (not including the dog’s name, they don’t want it bonding with thieves) and to remind them not to leave their dog unattended in a car or outside of a shop.
Nottinghamshire Police is taking the problem so seriously it appointed Amy Styles-Jones as a “dog theft lead”.
Dogs and other animals have a long association with criminology.
Cruelty to animals is an issue that has to be taken seriously and if the person carrying it out is a child, this can often be an indicator of underlying behavioural problems that need to be addressed.
If the abuser is an adult, alarm bells should ring on whether this is part of a domestic violence strategy which sees the family pet being tortured as a form of ensuring the compliance of the abuser’s partner or his children.
That’s one of the reasons why I always suggest vets have a part to play in reducing the incidence of domestic violence. We need to train them to look for unexplained or unusual injuries to pets which might be indicative of other problems in the home.
Some murderers and serial killers were kind to their dogs – such as Ian Brady and Dennis Nilsen – while others were cruel, as kids, to their family pets.
While there may not have been a “Croydon cat killer”, publicity surrounding that case masked the exploits of Brendan Gaughan, who was jailed for three years after admitting killing and dismembering seven cats in 2018. Gaughan strangled cats and left them in plastic bags on owner’s cars or gardens. He was a prolific arsonist and later said he killed cats “out of spite”.
What’s happening now is a response to a market that opened up in lockdown which dog lovers have to guard against.
Danger signs in childhood
Does fire-setting, cruelty to animals and bedwetting by children predict future violence?
The technical term is often called “the homicidal triad” and was first proposed in the 60s by forensic psychiatrist JM Macdonald.
It is now more generally accepted that there is little empirical support for the triad as a predictive tool, although it is still favoured by the FBI in America.
Diagnostic criteria for childhood conduct disorder and anti-social personality disorder still includes cruelty to animals and fire-setting as two of a cluster of other factors which indicates serious behavioural problems.
These include playing truant from school, persistently lying, stealing and destroying property.
Is animal cruelty just the start?
Does someone who kills animals necessarily graduate to killing people?
This is called the “species jump” and while there is no evidence to support the idea that one would necessarily lead to the other, there have been a number of killers – such as Jeffrey Dahmer – who made such a jump.
At a common sense level, you can also see a connection.
If someone becomes attracted to killing an animal and the feeling of power that gives, along with becoming comfortable at handling and dismembering a dead body, then it might also condition them to be less sensitive about taking the life of another human being and of handling human remains.
