anger managment

• anger management focuses on an individuals cognitions.
• anger management programmes look at what triggers the anger and teaches techniques that mean the offender can calm down and deal with situations in a positive way.
• The aim is not to prevent anger but to recognise and manage it.
• Novaco suggests that cognitive factors trigger the emotional arousal of anger in certain individuals. for some people, anger is quick to surface in situations that are perceived to cause anxiety or are threatening.
• Anger management programmes are a form of CBT- they are taught to recognise when they are losing control and then develop techniques which resolve the conflict without the need for violence.
• cognitive preparation

  reflect on past experience and consider typical pattern of anger.

  identify which situations trigger anger.

  if the offender interprets situations as irrational the therapists makes this clear.

  therapists breaks the automatic response of anger.
• Skill acquisition:

  Taught different techniques to deal with the situations more rationally and effectively.

  Cognitive- positive self talk

  Behavioural- taught how to communicate more effectively. 

  Psychological- relaxation techniques e.g deep breathing.

  Aims to get them in control of their emotions. 
• Application practice: 

  Practice their skills e.g role play

  Offender and therapist re-enacting scenarios that have happened in the past.

  Offender needs to engage in it.

  Therapist needs to be brave enough to really wind up the prisoners.
• There is supporting evidence for the effectiveness of anger management. Ireland compared the progress of 2 groups of offenders. One had anger management programme the other was a control group (non-treatment). After 12 sessions, outcomes were assessed using interviews, behaviour checklist (by prison officers) and as questionnaires. 92% of experimented groups showed an improvement on at least 1 measure. 48% showed an improvement on the checklist and self report. The control group had 0 improvements. This suggests that it’s an effective treatment and it can reduce recidivism in the long term.
• Strength is anger management takes an elective approach to offender behaviour. Anger management works on different levels. Cognitive phase 1, behavioural phase 2 and social phase 3. This is called having a multi disciplinary approach as it tackles the complex range of issues that contribute to offending. This suggests that it’s an effective treatment and would reduce recidivism.
• Weakness is there is limited long term effectiveness of anger management. Blackburn summarised the trends- it has an impact in the short term, but in the long term it has a less noticeable effect. It is possible that the role play at stage 3 is too artificial, and that real life triggers make it very difficult for the offender to apply what they have learned when placed in real life situations. This suggests that we cannot generalise this treatment to real life settings. 
• Weakness is that anger management is expensive and requires further commitment from the offender. An offender cannot be forced to take part in a programme, they have to agree to it. If a prisoner is uncooperative and violent, this may be very difficult. Also, it takes training and experience to be able to run the course, which means not all prisons will implement it as they do not have resources. This suggests that it might not be effective because it may not reduce recidivism for all offenders.