People who hurt animals are also likely to hurt other people. That link has been shown to be strong enough that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is going to start specifically tracking animal cruelty in 2016. The reports will be part of its Uniform Crime Report National Incident-Based Reporting System, a program that collects data from law enforcement agencies around the country in order to provide national statistics on all kinds of criminal activity. The National Sheriffs' Association and the Animal Welfare Institute partnered to push the FBI to start collecting reports on animal-related crimes, and Bureau officials thought it made sense. There's evidence that "animal cruelty [can be] an early indicator of violent crime, and that's really what led the discussions with our law enforcement partners throughout the country," FBI Unit Chief Amy Blasher explained in January 2015 on an FBI news podcast. The program was first approved in 2014, but implementing it has taken some time. Beginning in January of 2016, the FBI will actually start collecting the data. Results will be available to the public a year after that. The Uniform Crime Report group spent the past year preparing law enforcement around the country to report information on four different categories of abuse: intentional abuse or torture; organized abuse, such as dogfighting; simple or gross neglect; and animal sexual abuse. All will be categorized as "crimes against society," as opposed to crimes against people or property. They're also all considered "Group A" offenses in the database, a category that also includes homicide, arson, kidnapping, and narcotics offenses. As Animal Welfare Institute senior advisor Mary Lou Randour explained to the Baltimore Sun, collecting this data is an essential first step to both understanding these crimes in the first place and to using data on these crimes to monitor individuals for potential future violence. "There was no way to find out how often [this abuse] occurs, where it occurs, and whether it was on the increase," Randour told the Sun.
People who hurt animals are also likely to hurt other people. That link has been shown to be strong enough that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is going to start specifically tracking animal cruelty in 2016. The reports will be part of its Uniform Crime Report National Incident-Based Reporting System, a program that collects data from law enforcement agencies around the country in order to provide national statistics on all kinds of criminal activity. The National Sheriffs' Association and the Animal Welfare Institute partnered to push the FBI to start collecting reports on animal-related crimes, and Bureau officials thought it made sense. There's evidence that "animal cruelty [can be] an early indicator of violent crime, and that's really what led the discussions with our law enforcement partners throughout the country," FBI Unit Chief Amy Blasher explained in January 2015 on an FBI news podcast. The program was first approved in 2014, but implementing it has taken some time. Beginning in January of 2016, the FBI will actually start collecting the data. Results will be available to the public a year after that. The Uniform Crime Report group spent the past year preparing law enforcement around the country to report information on four different categories of abuse: intentional abuse or torture; organized abuse, such as dogfighting; simple or gross neglect; and animal sexual abuse. All will be categorized as "crimes against society," as opposed to crimes against people or property. They're also all considered "Group A" offenses in the database, a category that also includes homicide, arson, kidnapping, and narcotics offenses. As Animal Welfare Institute senior advisor Mary Lou Randour explained to the Baltimore Sun, collecting this data is an essential first step to both understanding these crimes in the first place and to using data on these crimes to monitor individuals for potential future violence. "There was no way to find out how often [this abuse] occurs, where it occurs, and whether it was on the increase," Randour told the Sun.