Examining the Potential Benefits of Companion Animals in Prison — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Examining the Potential Benefits of Companion Animals in Prison

Name: Lauren Lindahl
Major: Criminal Justice
Hometown: Lakeland
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Senior thesis

Abstract

Pets have an important role in the daily life of individuals. The addition of a pet into one's life creates a complex and profound relationship between the human and animal. Many studies have been conducted on the benefits of that having a household pet. Some benefits range from having a companion in which to confide, to increasing cardiovascular health. Many studies indicate that pets offer benefits to the lives of individuals. So looking at these benefits, it brings up the question of how can these benefits be applied? This then lead to a bigger picture, and looking into America's criminal system. In America, 2.3 million men and women are behind bars, and being in prison is shown to affect the mental state of inmates. One of the main similarities of inmates is stress. By analyzing these influences that effect an inmates mental state we can start to compare the research of having a companion animal. Looking into this we can analyze potential benefits that could come from an animal program in prison, and how pets could help reduce stress within inmates.