Evaluate

• Anger management as a part of cognitive therapy

  • Highly effective
  • 92% of prisoners receiving the therapy showed an improvement in at least one of the 'angry behaviours'
  • Significantly reduced the expression of anger and the amount of anger experienced among offenders
• Anger management programmes


  • Only moderate benefits
  • Difficult to measure
  • Threat of social desirability bias
• Side effects of CBT


  Generally comes without side effects, more humane than historical treatments like drug therapy, ECT, and lobotomies
• We don't know if anger necessarily causes aggressive behaviour, just assume they are related
• No differences between violent and non-violent offenders in terms of anger
• Anger management may just tackle the symptoms of criminal behaviour, not the cause
• Anger management in prison environments


  • Reduces levels of aggression and violence, making prisons safer
  • Helps reduce recidivism, which has an approximate cost of at least £9.5 billion
  • Reduces hostile attribution bias, making society safer
• CBT for anger management


  • Requires a lot of time and effort from the patient
  • Some offenders don't like to reflect on their thinking and may drop out
• Ethical issues with anger management


  • Offenders may not have a choice to participate, breaking informed consent
  • Therapists have a duty to both the client and the prison, which can lead to breaches of confidentiality
• Ethical issues need to be balanced against the benefits to society through anger reduction
• Restorative justice


  • 85% of victims felt it was beneficial
  • 98% of meetings ended with outcome agreement
  • 85% satisfaction from victims in face-to-face meetings
  • 14% reduction in reoffence rates
  • Significant reduction in reoffending
• Restorative justice is hard to apply to all victims and offenders, and some crimes do not lend themselves to this form of modifying criminal behaviour
• Potential side effects of restorative justice


  • May cause the victim to be uncomfortable or cause them more distress due to the resurfacing of trauma
• Restorative justice does not address the cause of criminal behaviour, but allows the offender to see the impact of their behaviour on victims
• Aims of restorative justice


  • Reduce recidivism and prison population
  • Hold offenders accountable for the effect on victims
  • £8 saved for every £1 spent on the restorative process
  • Funded by fines paid by offenders
  • Appealing to the community through 'peace circles' to foster support and understanding
• Restorative justice


  • Time consuming for both victim and offender
  • Victim participation is not mandatory
• Ethical considerations in restorative justice


  • Victim's wellbeing and protection from psychological harm
  • Offender's right to be treated ethically and fairly
  • Informed consent should be gained from both parties
• Ethics should be strongly considered before using restorative justice as it can be distressing for the victim(s) or offender