Showing posts with label National Incident Based Reporting System. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Incident Based Reporting System. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
The FBI Has Now Named Animal Cruelty as a Top Tier Crime Along with Arson, Burglary, Kidnapping, and Homicide
Memphis, TN - The FBI has now named animal cruelty as a top tier crime along with arson, burglary, kidnapping, and homicide.
The new federal category for animal cruelty crimes is expected to root out pet abusers and give a boost to prosecutions.
Animal advocate Cindy Sanders, who co-founded the Community Action for Animals organization, is happy about the changes.
"Animal cruelty is a huge problem," said Sanders. "Honestly, it's big everywhere but the Mid-South and the Deep South show some of the highest concentrations.
When the changes go into effect, federal law will regard animal cruelty as a crime against society.
"If it's a dog fighting case where it's taking part in a couple of states, that's a federal law," Sanders explained. "If it is an animal abuse case of a puppy mill that is shipping across the country that makes it a federal type thing."
For years, the FBI has filed animal abuse charges under the label "other," along with a variety of lesser crimes. This categorization made cruelty hard to find, count, and track.
Since animal cruelty is considered a more serious crime under the new rules, reports will now be documented in the National Incident-Based Reporting System. This action will advance how law enforcement officials understand how to prevent these often violent crimes.
Sanders says the collected information could be used as an early warning sign to help identify people who start out abusing animals and end up abusing humans.
"We see almost every defendant accused of a level of animal cruelty has had child abuse, spouse abuse, violent assault arrests," Sanders explained. "They have a history."
Sanders says cities and states will still have their own criteria for animal cruelty charges, but she sees the new laws as a level of enforcement regarding people who hurt animals. She hopes the federal changes will motivate state legislatures to put more laws on the books to protect animals.
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Friday, October 17, 2014
Finally, the Federal Government is Treating Animal Abuse as a Serious Crime: FBI Will Crack Animal Cruelty Cases
Last month the Federal Bureau of Investigation quietly changed its policy by agreeing to add animal cruelty as a distinct offense in the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The new policy followed proposals from the National Sheriff’s Association and the Animal Welfare Institute.
Until now, the FBI classified animal abuse under the
"other" category, with a group of less serious offenses. That made it
difficult for law enforcement agencies and animal welfare groups to monitor,
and fight, the unlawful harming of animals across the country. Now the crime
will have its own felony classification similar to other violent crimes such as
murder, assault and rape. "It will be a Group A offense and a Crime
against Society," the FBI said in a statement provided to The Dodo.
"Criminal activity and gang information will be expanded to include four
types of abuses."
The four categories are: simple/gross neglect; intentional
abuse and torture, organized abuse (ie, dog and cock fighting); and animal
sexual abuse.
What constitutes cruelty? "Intentionally, knowingly,
or recklessly taking an action that mistreats or kills any animal without just
cause, such as torturing, tormenting, mutilation, maiming, poisoning, or
abandonment," the FBI statement said.
Examples of such abuse include failure to provide food,
water, shelter or needed veterinarian care, confining an animal in a way that
is likely to cause injury or death, and inflicting excessive or repeated pain
and suffering.
"This definition does not include proper maintenance
of animals for show or sport; use of animals for food, lawful hunting, fishing
or trapping," the FBI statement added.
While disappointed that the new policy will not cover
industrial animal production and does nothing to reverse so-called
"Ag-Gag" laws — which ban the taking of photos or video inside a
factory farm without permission — animal welfare advocates applauded the move.
"It's an excellent thing and it has two immediate
effects," said John Goodwin, director of animal abuse policy at the Humane
Society of America (HSUS). "First, the fact that the FBI is taking animal
cruelty crimes seriously enough to track them sends a message to all law
enforcement agencies that this is a serious concern and they need to take it
very seriously." The second result will be real-time tracking of animal
abuse in all 50 states, as compiled in monthly crime reports by local law
enforcement. Data reporting will begin in January 2016.
"Accurate data will give people information on what
needs to be done about the problem," Goodwin said. "It can tell us
the geographical range of the crimes and which individuals are committing
them." That information could help alleviate the problem. "There are
different ways to tackle different types of cruelty," Goodwin said. The
answer to neglect, for example, may be better education, acts of torture will
require stronger penalties and serious psychological counseling, while animal
fighting data will show where gambling profits need to be addressed. The new
classification could also put more teeth into the enforcement of animal cruelty
laws on the state level, according to Madeline Bernstein, president and CEO of the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles. "It will
help get better sentences, sway juries and make for better plea bargains,"
she told the Associated Press. The new classification will also help identify
juvenile offenders, who sometimes go on to harm or kill people. “We’re very,
very pleased. A lot of good things are happening in law enforcement now, and we
can continue to make the world a better place for animals,” said HSUS’s
Goodwin. “But a lot of policy making still needs to be done before we reach the
point of referring to ourselves as a completely humane nation.”
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