Anger management AO3

Question 1

Better than behaviour modification

Answer 1

• anger management tries to tackle one of the underlying causes of offending behaviour
• anger management is therefore more likely than behaviour modification to lead to permanent behvioural change
• so lower recidivism

Question 2

limited long term effectiveness

Answer 2

• Blackburn pointed out that whilst anger management may have noticeable effect on the conduct of offenders in the short term
• very little evidence to say it reduces recidivism in the long term
• may be because application phase of treatment still relies on roleplay which may not reflect the possible triggers in real life

Question 3

Anger may not cause offending

Answer 3

• • theories of anger (including Novaco) often assume a straightforward casual relationship between anger and offending
• this assumption may be false
• Loza and Loza Fanous used a range of psychometric measures and found no differences in level of anger between offenders classed as violent and those classed as non-violent
• also not all crimes such as fraud are motivated by anger