methods of modifying - anger management

• how has society tried to prevent criminal behaviours?

  punishment, such as public hanging or execution
• what are recidivism rates of criminals released from prison?

  50% of criminals reoffended within the first 12 months if their sentence was short, using prison as punishment and rehab may work for some but not all
• What is anger management?

  A cognitive behavioural therapy that involves identifying signs that trigger anger and learning techniques to deal with the situation in a positive way. The aim is to recognise anger and manage it. It can be offered in prison to encourage self-awareness and facilitate rehabillitation.
• what are two aims of anger management?

  1. reduce rates of recidivism

  2. reduce levels of anger
• where does criminal behaviour usually stem from?

  issues with controlling/containing anger, when a person is angry they will make poor decisions lose control of their behaviour and wont be able to judge the consequences of their behaviour accurately.
• what did Novaco 2013 refer to prison as?

  anger factories
• how does minimalisation have a role in anger?

  the person is not aware or fully understood the consequences of their anger and the long term negative effects (injury/imprisonment) that may result from it
• what is the stress inoculation model?

  provide people skills to deal with potentially stressful and anger provoking situations in which they may find themselves
• what are three phases of the stress inoculation model?

  1. conceptulisation

  2. skills acquisiton

  3. application
• what is conceptualisation?

  - teaching phase, client learns about stress and our body's responses

  
  

  - clear understanding of clients stress develop

  
  

  - stressor is turned into opportunities rather than obstacles
• what is skills acquisition?

  Techniques are introduced to deal with anger provoking situations. This may be cognitive with positive self talk, behavioural with learning effective communication or physiological with relaxation and meditation
• what is application?

  - the therapist provides the patient with opportunities to practice coping skills e.g. role playing stressful situations until they over come their out of proportion actions
• Taylor and Novaco (2006)

  reviewed a few studies of anger management therapy in a meta-analysis and found 75% improvement rates
• evaluation - appropriateness

  anger management may not be appropriate for all offenders

  
  

  Ainsworth, agues that anger management is effective but only if manages properly/given right resources/targeted at right offenders

  
  

  - inverse effect on offenders, causing higher levels of aggression

  
  

  - Howitt, some offenders act violently to achieve specific goals not out of anger

  
  

  - Rice, found that psychopaths given treatment were more likely to offend afterwards
• evaluation - ethical issues

  - lack of free will, offenders are usually forced into the programme by courts

  
  

  - the programme is to help the offender avoid reoffending in the future

  
  

  HOWEVER

  
  

  - it can be argued that AM is to make difficult inmates easier to handle and reduce rates of violence in prisons
• evaluation - social implications

  - limitation is that AM is expensive

  
  

  - they require resources, professionals (highly trained)

  
  

  - the success of AM is based of willing offenders, this will be a problem if offenders are uncooperative

  
  

  - if AM is successful treatment it can reduce violent crimes and save economy money, violent crimes cost the UK economy £124b