Anger management

• Cognitive behavioural therapy is often applied to rehabilitating offenders in the form of anger management
• Novaco (1975) claims it is cognitive factors that trigger the emotional arousal that results in criminal acts of aggression
• anger management programmes are a form of CBT which allows the offender to recognise the cognitive factors that trigger their anger and respond without violence
• 3 stages of anger management; cognitive preparation, skill acquisition, and application
• During cognitive preparation the client reflects on past experiences to consider their patterns of anger, their triggers, and irrational thoughts behind it as aided by a therapist
• during skill acquisition cognitive (positive self talk) behavioural (praise) and physiological (deep breathing) techniques are taught to help deal with situations that may trigger anger
• during application the skills learned are practised in a safe controlled environment such as role play to learn how to deal with situations appropriately
• Strength; research support from Keen (2000) who found that across 8 CBT sessions young offenders gained greater anger management and self control
• Strength; unlike other techniques such as behaviour modification anger management goes beyond the surface level and aims to address the root cause of offending
• Weakness; Blackburn (1993) finds that anger management reduces recidivism only in the short term
• Weakness; role play application techniques do not reflect the real world
• Weakness; Howells (2005) found this only impacts violent offenders as it was much less effective when used on offenders who had a lower level of anger
• Weakness; expensive as it requires highly trained professionals and time consuming as it requires many sessions over the course of weeks or months
• Cognitive preparation focuses on reframing a situation as non-threatening EG by reducing hostile attribution bias
• Psychological techniques in the skill acquisition phase allow the offender to control their emotions rather than be controlled by them
• Often during the application stage the therapist will antagonise the client to create anger inducing situations