© 2014 American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. State legislatures should also consider modernizing their bestiality statutes to accord with current terminology and objectives for such laws. Forensic evaluators should consider this factor when conducting risk assessments. Because of the different laws among the states, however, commonly used forensic risk assessment tools for sexual recidivism can yield different scores for individuals charged with or convicted of bestiality offenses. Identifying offenders who commit acts of bestiality is important, since these individuals may be at increased risk of committing a variety of other sexually and nonsexually violent acts against humans. Although societies responses to bestiality have varied internationally, the response in the United States has typically involved condemnation and prosecution. Most commonly, bestiality arises in legal cases involving sexually violent predator (SVP) civil commitments. Despite the prevalence of antibestiality legislation, there is limited case law in the United States. Currently, there are 31 states with statutes prohibiting human-animal sexual contact. the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan) 2 and. 1 Bestiality remained a theme in mythology and folklore through the classical period and into the Middle Ages (e.g. Although societies' responses to bestiality have varied internationally, the response in the United States has typically involved condemnation and prosecution. The history of zoophilia and bestiality begins in the prehistoric era, where depictions of humans and non-human animals in a sexual context appear infrequently in European rock art.
