With numerous reports of homicides and other crimes scattered about the news recently, it is no secret that violence is prevalent in today’s society.

Animals have also become a prime target for abuse and murder, said Randall Lockwood, vice president of training initiatives for the Humane Society of the United States and principal spokesman for First Strike.

Lockwood spoke to a crowd of about 60 people Wednesday in the South Ballroom of the Memorial Union about the connection between animal cruelty and violent behavior toward others.

His speech, titled “Who Abuses Animals and Why?” encouraged the early detection and prevention of such violent acts.

Lockwood, who has bachelor degrees in both psychology and biology, as well as a doctorate of psychology, said he worked in the environmental movement before becoming “involved in another form of pollution — the deterioration of our psychological or spiritual environment with the proliferation of violence.”

Lockwood said a majority of cases involving serious, intentional animal cruelty are committed by young men because animals are easy targets for “power and control.”

He said he once interviewed convicted Oregon murderer Keith Jessperson, who described his attraction to killing by saying, “When your hands are around that victim’s neck, you are God.”

Lockwood warned that a need for control often escalates to the point at which killers no longer are satisfied with dominating animals.

“The way we treat animals as individuals and as a society is often very closely related to how we treat each other,” he said. “Perpetrators of violence usually don’t stop to count the number of legs on their victims.”

Many serial killers have had a history of mutilating or killing animals before murdering human victims, Lockwood said. He cited Richard Trenton Chase, who answered “free to good home” ads and then placed his new pets in a blender or stew pot, as an example.

He also mentioned Jeffrey Dahmer and Henry Lee Lucas, who claim to have killed more than 300 people, as classic animal murderers.

Lockwood added that the FBI found a diary kept by accused Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, which described the mutilation and death of animals he killed and ate while living in isolation in the woods.

Lockwood later pointed out a distinction between sanctioned hunting and “pathological harm.”

“Hunters make the distinction between hunting for sport and finding pleasure in dying and mutilation,” he said.

Lockwood also mentioned murder cases in public schools, particularly last week’s incident in Jonesboro, Ark., in which five lives were claimed by two boys.

Lockwood said some youths feel isolated and seek a “sense of mastery and dominance through the killing of an innocent victim.”

He said it is crucial to not ignore early warning signs.

“The tendency in the country is to forgive kids, and yet we have 11-year- olds murdering people in their own schools,” he said.

Although a history of animal abuse in the latest Arkansas shootings has not been proven, Lockwood said he suspects it is only a matter of time before evidence of animal cruelty or killing is discovered.

Lockwood also said a close relationship between animal cruelty and child abuse exists. He said in studies of families with incidents of child abuse, at least one family member also had abused animals in 60 percent of the cases.