A03

• strength- comparison

  • anger management seeks to tackle actual cause of offending unlike behavioural modification which is shallow behaviour change
  • means more effective in lower recidivism and more effective in long term
  • more people in public protected from reoffending and thus more successful
• limitation- expensive

  • anger management requires highly trained and experienced specialist who are expensive to employ
  • prisons are usually underfunded and may not have the resources to access these specialist
  • thus not practical as not cost effective or realistic in some cases
  • + offenders need motivation and commitment in order to take part which some may not have if not willing to move out of criminal mindset or address anger issues
• limitation- real world

  • in practice, as suggested by Blackburn, anger management is likely to have little effect on controlling anger in real-life.
  •  This is because the therapist will not be present to positively reinforce any desirable behaviours, and the prisoner may find themselves surrounded by stimuli/cues which trigger such anger.
  • Therefore, this suggests that such therapies are best reserved for improving prisoner’s conduct within prisons (rehabilitation), as opposed to providing a long-term solution to offending.