Empathy through Animals: Generating Evidence‐based Outcomes for Empathy Development

• Published date: 01 December 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jfcj.12080
• Author: Jamie Dawson
• Date: 01 December 2016

Empathy through Animals: Generating

Evidence-based Outcomes for Empathy

Development

By Jamie Dawson

ABSTRACT

Low empathy is a prominent trait associated with juvenile offenders. Many

juvenile justice service providers strive to reduce risk factors associated with juvenile

delinquency, while producing evidence-based outcomes for targeted programming.

The Youth Services Agency (YSA) Nature Center provides empathy development

through animal therapy to adjudicated youth. This project generates evidence-based

outcomes and quantifies the impact of animal therapy on empathy development of

adjudicated youth at the YSA Nature Center by utilizing self-assessment tools.

Results indicated trends that animal therapy increases the emotional empathy of

YSA clients. Qualitative evidence implied that animal therapy had notable therapeu-

tic value to YSA clients.

Key words: animal therapy, empathy development, juvenile delinquency.

INTRODUCTION

Mounting research has demonstrated a strong correlation between low empathy

and juvenile offending (Dadd, Whiting, & Hawes, 2006; Forth & Flight, 2007; Jolliffe

& Farrington, 2004). Singer and Frith (2005) define empathy as the ability to share emo-

tions and feelings with others, and Seyfarth and Cheney (2013) elaborate that empathy

refers to the ability to identify with others’ emotional states without personally experi-

encing the same emotions. A core goal of many juvenile justice service providers is to fos-

ter healthy and productive youth, families, and communities by reducing the risk factors

associated with juvenile delinquency, including low empathy.

Jamie Dawson is a Senior Director and the Board President for Youth Services Agency (YSA), a

non-profit organization providing a variety of services to adjudicated youth throughout Pennsylvania and

Delaware. The Dawson family created the YSA Nature Center, which provides a variety of educational, voca-

tional, and therapeutic services to YSA clients while providing sanctuary to rescued animals. Jamie com-

pleted this project as part of her graduate research with Project Dragonfly at Miami University in Oxford,

Ohio. Correspondence: jdawson@youthservicesagency.org

Juvenile and Family Court Journal 67, No. 4

©2016 National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

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