Anger Management with Offenders

• Anger management is an intervention aimed at reducing recidivism by using cognitive behavioural therapy to tackle violence and aggression. It is often used with offenders in prison
• Anger management programmes in prison assume that offenders commit crimes because they cannot control their anger.
• Anger management was a technique developed by Novoco in the 1970s and has been widely used to combat the effects of anger with prisoners.
• Novoco (1975) suggests that cognitive factors trigger emotional arousal which generally precedes aggressive acts.
• Becoming angry is reinforced by the individuals feeling of control in that situation and as such anger management programmes are a form of CBT.
• Novoco (1974) described anger management as a form of CBT, involving 3 stages; cognitive preparation, skill acquisition and application practice.
• Cognitive preparation in anger management encourages offenders to recognise their feelings of anger and any events that may trigger an angry response.
• In cognitive preparation an offender is required to reflect on past experience and consider the typical pattern of their anger. They then learn to identify situations which act as triggers for their anger.
• Skill acquisition in anger management teaches offenders techniques to control their angry responses in order to deal with situations differently in the future.
• During skill acquisition prisoners are taught coping strategies and skills that allow them to control their anger and handle their emotions more effectively. This can include relaxation training or assertiveness training.
• Assertiveness training is used in skill acquisition and teaches prisoners how to communicate more effectively in anger provoking situations.
• Many prisoners will need to deal with their physical reaction to anger, so relaxation techniques or meditation are used as part of the skill acquisition process.
• Application practise in anger management encourages offenders to practise the skills they have learnt through role play, in order to control their anger in a non-threatening environment.
• Application practise requires a certain amount of commitment from the offender in that they must see each scenario as real. If they deal with the situation appropriately, they will be given positive reinforcement by the therapist.
• Keen et al (2000) studied the progress made with young offenders who took part in a nationally recognised anger management programme and found the final outcome after a month was generally positive.
• The National Anger Management Package was developed by the UK prison service in 1992. The programme is intensive and usually involves eight 2-hour sessions.
• Ireland (2000) investigated the usefulness of group based anger management programmes with young male offenders. Pre and post programme self-report anger scores were taken from an experimental group of prisoners and a control group. Offenders on the anger management programme showed significant reductions in angry outbursts.
• Ireland (2000) found 92% of offenders on an anger management programme improved on at least one measure and 48% improved on two measures. It was concluded that anger management programmes successfully reduce anger and disruptive behaviour.
• Anger management gives offenders an insight into why they experience anger and provide them with skills to control it.
• Anger management tries to tackle the underlying causes of offending which includes the cognitive processes that trigger angry outbursts, and subsequent offending behaviour.
• Anger management programmes are effective in reducing anger within prisons but only if they are well managed.
• Blackburn (1993) suggest that whilst anger management has some short term benefits there is very little evidence that it reduces recidivism in the long term.
• Application practise on an anger management programme does not reflect a real world situation, so role-playing behaviours lack ecological validity.
• Individual differences play a part in the success of anger management programmes as they are reliant on the intrinsic motivation of the offender themselves.
• Anger management programmes are not effective with offenders who do not commit crime related to aggression and violence. This means the treatment is not effective for all offenders.
• Howells et al (2005) conducted an investigation with Australian offenders and found that participation in an anger management programme had little overall impact when compared to a control group.
• Anger management programmes fail to consider individuals who may produce more testosterone, which might be responsible for their aggressive behaviour.
• Much of the data on anger management programmes relies on self-reports and therefore may lack validity, as prisoners might exaggerate their improvements.
• It is hard to measure whether anger management programmes produce long term benefits, as individual cases are not followed up outside of prison.
• In prison it is often advantageous for offenders to hold a higher status in the hierarchy by behaving more aggressively. This may limit the uptake on anger management programmes.
• Anger management programmes are expensive to run as they require the services of highly trained specialists who are used to dealing with violent offenders.
• Loza & Loza-Fanous (1999) found no differences in levels of anger between offenders classed as violent and those classed as non-violent.