< Back to Expert Directory

Shannon Lynch

Professor of Psychology, Idaho State University

Areas of Expertise

  • Incarcerated women
  • Mental health
  • Treatment evaluation
  • Violence against women
  • Survivors’ trauma recovery
  • Prisoner reentry

Key Findings

  • Ninety-percent of women reported physical and sexual violence from their partners in the past year. MORE
  • Participants reported physical abuse (56%), sexual violence (43%) experiences as beginning in childhood. MORE
  • Women in prison have high rates of mental health disorders with a majority experiencing mental illness in their lifetime. MORE
  • Serious mental illness was associated with substance use, running away as a teen, and drug offenses. MORE
  • Forty-three percent of incarcerated women reported experiencing serious mental illness during their lifetime. MORE
  • Thirty-two percent of participants experienced a serious mental disorder in the 12 months prior to the study. MORE
  • Detained juveniles demonstrated high rates of exposure to adversity and substance use. MORE
  • The severity of substance use, and reoffending in rural detained youth, cumulative experiences of adversity in childhood and substance use were important predictors of youth re-entry into the criminal legal system. MORE

Biography

Shannon Lynch, Professor of Psychology at Idaho State University, is an expert in violence against women, survivors’ trauma recovery, incarcerated women, mental health, reentry and treatment.

Lynch was co-PI on a grant awarded by Bureau of Justice Assistance in the Department of Justice and has consulted for grants funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism and the National Science Foundation. She received an infusing diversity award from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology and previously served as an Associate Editor for Psychology of Women Quarterly. She is a member of the American Psychological Association and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

She has been published in academic journals including Journal of Traumatic Stress, Psychiatric Services and Psychology of Women Quarterly.

Lynch received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan and B.A. in Psychology and Child Study from Tufts University.