Book review: Jennifer Maher, Harriet Pierpoint and Piers Beirne (eds), The Palgrave International Handbook of Animal Abuse Studies
| Author | Corina Medley |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480618787171 |
| Published date | 01 August 2018 |
| Date | 01 August 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
787171TCR0010.1177/1362480618787171Theoretical CriminologyBook reviews
book-review2018
Theoretical Criminology
2018, Vol. 22(3) 492 –502
Book reviews
© The Author(s) 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480618787171
DOI: 10.1177/1362480618787171
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Jennifer Maher, Harriet Pierpoint and Piers Beirne (eds), The Palgrave International Handbook of
Animal Abuse Studies, Palgrave Macmillan: London, 2017; 548 pp.: 9781137431820, $239 (hbk),
9781137431837, $189 (e-book)
Reviewed by: Corina Medley
, Eastern Kentucky University, USA
The Palgrave International Handbook of Animal Abuse Studies presents original, interdis-
ciplinary work that is foundational for animal abuse studies. Grounding the chapters is an
interest in criminological and zemiological issues, coupled with a critical perspective that
is decidedly non-anthropocentric/non-speciesist—for the task of animal abuse studies is
“first and foremost, for the sake of animals themselves” (p. 5, emphasis in original).
Professors, researchers, scholars, students and teachers, as well as activists, policy-makers
and practitioners of all kinds will find the volume useful as an indispensable resource for
anyone concerned with understanding—and eradicating—harm to animals.
The volume is comprehensive. It includes different species, forms of abuse and types
of abusers, and it covers a range of social relations and locations that elicit harm.
Furthermore, suggestions for social change, including policy implications, are offered
throughout. All of the concepts and issues with which the chapters engage, and the theo-
ries and methods used to frame those discussions, cannot be addressed in this space.
Nevertheless, it is worth noting just a few of the themes that run throughout the Handbook
before moving on to the synopsis of it below. The animals in this volume are subjects,
objects and abject. As beings, they are kin and comrades,...
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