Teaching and learning about men’s violence against women, domestic violence, interpersonal and sexual violence present a challenge to all higher education systems. Social responsibility, national and international legal frameworks on prevention and treatment of gender-based violence, as well as the demands of different professions that deal with victims, point to the complexity and necessity of delivering learning outcomes on gender-based violence, particularly those related to social skills and attitudes. Additionally, the global, national and institutional context, such as the often- confronted public actors and heated public forums on human rights violations and gender equality issues, influence higher education efforts to deliver human rights and gender equality learning outcomes with students in ways that still need to be uncovered. The study presented in this article is based on a survey done with Croatian and Swedish health, social work and criminal justice study programmes, with particular focus on the prevalence and features of learning outcomes on gender-based violence. The analysis aims to investigate the influence of the socio-political and institutional context, attitudes and opinions of Croatian academic stakeholders on content and methods of teaching and assessment of students’ knowledge, soft skills and attitudes about human rights and gender- based violence, compare them to Swedish results and frame them in a broader national and international discussion on the quality and responsibility of higher education.

Taking into consideration the complexity of animal cruelty, problems with its varying definitions which depend on legal frameworks, social norms, cultural and public perceptions and many possible approaches to the issue of animal cruelty, this paper will focus only on active cruelty (acts of commission), i.e. the intention to harm an animal and cause pain and suffering. It will study the phenomenon as a multi-indicator for violence. Regardless of whether animal abuse is treated as a criminal offence or a misdemeanor or if it is absent from the legal framework altogether, it represents a complex phenomenon present in both children and adults. This abuse affects families and a wide range of social institutions, not only harming animals but also indicating various inter-personal types of violence and individual behavioral disorders. This paper explores intersectional and interdisciplinary research on animal abuse, its connection to subsequent adult or concurrent domestic violence and child abuse, contributing factors such as defense mechanisms and the roles of empathy and remorse. Understanding animal cruelty as a part of human violence and as a sign of serious concern for the welfare of both animals and humans is a first step towards building sustainable social policies.