cognitive- anger management

• what does anger management presume?

  offenders inability to control anger is the root cause of offending behaviour

  • Novaco (1975) suggested some offenders are more likely to see a situation as threatening and stressful, which leads them to react aggressively

  thoughts impact feelings and behaviour (same process as CBT, if you think negatively you'll feel negatively and will behave accordingly.
• main aim for anger management?

  aggressive behaviour should be changed into positive ones, 3 main stages:

  • cognitive preparation
  • skill acquisition
  • application and practice
• cognitive preparation?

  offender reflects on situations that have triggered their anger in the past and consider things like if they could've acted differently

  • essentially encouraged to think about triggers in a different way(maybe something was an accident)
• skill acquisition?

  develop strategies or behavioural techniques for controlling their anger, ensuring they learn a different behaviour and promoting calmness rather than aggression

  • likely to become automatic response if practised regularly
• application practice?

  demonstrate and practice skills they've learned

  • eg roleplays in enacting trigger and seeing how behavioural techniques are demonstrated
  • could complete anger diary to recognise triggers that made them feel aggressive and evaluate own responses
• strengths of using anger management?

  • based on psychological principles (CBT), indicated they're based on scientific evidence
  • programmes are effective (Ireland 2004, Howells 2005) credible
  • follow standardised procedures, programmes are reliable and can be carried out in different prisons
  • useful in reducing antisocial behaviour
  • provide criminals with greater insight into causes of behaviour and ways to respond to provocation useful treatment)
  • ethical treatment, empowers clients with self-help strategies
• limitations of anger management?

  • subject to reductionism, focuses on thought processes but not underlying complex causes (biological or situational?)
  • Blackburn (1993), anger management helps offenders control behaviour short term, but little impact long term
  • researchers can't argue there's a causal relationship between anger and violent crime, only suitable for offenders where lack of emotional control had contributed to crime
  • lack of research into long term effects for preventing recidivism
  • offenders may not be honest about psychometric tests measuring anger, may not show they've improved
• Chen (2015)?

  violent male offenders have had a decrease in aggression so CBT can be effective for violent males