Samenvatting

Criminology usually focuses on the human experience. The relatively few criminological publications that do pay attention to animals, are very often written from an anthropocentric perspective in which animals are portrayed as passive objects and in terms of their usefulness to humans. Is this a satisfactory situation? Some criminologists would answer this question with a sincere ‘no’.
For example Beirne and Cazaux have pleaded for a non speciesist criminology, meaning a criminology that does not take other than the human species for granted. This is not a plea for an entire new criminology, but an appeal for more attention on negative outcomes of human behaviour regarding animal welfare. In this article some examples of research options are described.