AO3 Anger Management

• +Better than behaviour modification. Anger management tries to tackle one of the causes of offending behaviours; the cognitive processes that trigger anger. Behaviour modification deals with surface behaviour and not the processes that drive such behaviour. Experience of anger management may give offenders new insight into the cause of their criminality and allow them to self- discover ways of managing themselves outside of the prison setting; lead to permanent behavioural change. This suggests that anger management is better than behaviour modification.
• -Blackburn points out that, whilst anger management may have a noticeable effect in the short term, there is very little evidence that it reduces recidivism in the long term. This may be because the application phase of treatment still relies on role play which might not properly reflect all the possible triggers that are present in a real-world situation. Any progress made in therapy may count for little when compared reality. This suggests that anger management may not reduce reoffending.
• -Individual differences. Howells conducted an investigation with Australian offenders; participation in an anger management programme had little impact when compared to a control group who received no treatment. However, significant progress was made with those offenders who had showed intense levels of anger before the programme and offenders who were open to change and highly motivated from the outset (”treatment readiness"). This suggests that anger management may only benefit offenders who fit a certain profile.
• -Expensive. Anger management programmes are expensive to run; they require highly-trained specialists who are used to dealing with violent offenders. Many prisons may not have the resources to fund such programmes. The success of anger management is often based on the commitment of those who participate, and this may be a problem if prisoners are uncooperative and apathetic. Change takes time and this is ultimately likely to add to the expense of delivering effective programmes. This suggests that effective anger management programmes are probably not going to work in most prisons.
• Anger and Offending

  The anger management approach suggests there is a straightfonward causal relationship between anger and offending. Anger is assumed to be an important antecedent to offending in that it produces the emotional state necessary to commit crime. However, this assumption may be false; Loza and Loza-Fanous found no diferences in levels of anger between offenders classed as violent and those classed as non-violent. They suggested anger management programmes may be misguided as they provide offenders with a justification for their behaviour.