Dealing With Offending Behavioir: Anger Management

Question 1

Success of anger management programmes:
Taylor and Novaco (2006)
Landenberger and Lipsey (2005)

Answer 1

T&N: reported 75% improvement rates from meta analysis’

L&L: Analysed studies using CBT with offenders and found that having an anger control element was significantly related to improvement

Question 2

Methodological issues with research:

Answer 2

Some anger programs are quite brief and last a few days whereas others may span years. Also some courses are run by psychologists whereas others are run by less experienced staff.

Another issue is the way that anger is assessed. this is done either using self reports measures or observations by staff and both are subject to bias

One issue is there hello-goodbye effect where patients portray themselves in a more positive light after treatment to help show that the therapy worked

Question 3

Limitations of anger management programmes:

Howells and Day (2003£

Answer 3

CBT isn’t for everyone and some offenders don’t like having to reflect on their thinking. Thus, some may drop out of these programmes

An alternative is the use of drama-based courses which are less reliant on verbal ability and engaging

H&D: One way to deal with dropout is to assess ‘readiness to change’ before the start of anger management. This avoids wasting time with individuals who won’t benefit

Question 4

The relationship between anger and aggression and crime:

Loza and Loza-Fanous (1999)

Answer 4

Another issue is whether anger and aggression are related as it is aggression and crime that we are trying to reduce

L&L: in their study of males in prison they found no difference between violent and non-violent offenders in terms of anger
Also such programs can be harmful because offenders attribute their violent behaviour to anger rather than taking responsibility