Dealing With Offending Behaviour: Anger Management

Question 1

What is anger management

Answer 1

A form of cognitive behavioural therapy specific to changing the way a person manages their anger

Question 2

Whats the point of anger management

Answer 2

• short term aim of reducing anger and aggression in prisons where it’s a serious issue.
• long term aim of rehabilitation and reduction of recidivism, especially for violent prisoners

Question 3

Key aims of novaco (2011)

Answer 3

• cognitive restructuring: greater self-awareness and control over dimensions of anger
• regulation of arousal: learning to control the physiological state
• behavioural strategies: problem solving, strategic withdrawal, assertiveness

Question 4

What is the stress inoculation model?

Answer 4

Proposed by novoco
- provides a ‘vaccinations against infections’. Therapy tends to be conducted with a group of offenders either inside prison or outside, involves 3 key steps

Question 5

What are the 3 key steps of novoco’s model of the stress inoculation model

Answer 5

• cognitive preparation-: learning about anger, how it can be adaptive, non-adaptive. Analysing their own patterns, identifying what angers them
• skill acquisition: taught skills to help manage anger, such as self regulation, cognitive flexibility. Also taught better comms skills
• application training: apply skills to controlled and non-controlled threatening situations, then given feedback

Question 6

What is cognitive behavioural therapy

Answer 6

• combo of cognitive therapy and behavioural therapy

Question 7

What is the success of anger management programmes

Answer 7

• Taylor and Novoco reported 75% improvement rates based on 6 meta-analyses
• Howells looked at 5 meta analytic studies which showed only moderate benefits of anger management programmes,
• mixed findings on anger management make it difficult to draw clear conclusions about its effectiveness

Question 8

What are the problems with research into anger management

Answer 8

• problem with it is methods are quite variable, making it difficult to draw conclusions
• some are quite brief but some last years (jones and hollin 2004 lasted 3 years).
• also using it on violent prisoners and not so violent offenders makes comparability difficult

Question 9

What is a major limitation of the anger management programme

Answer 9

• CBT in general doesn’t work for everyone, some offenders don’t make the effort to try to change their behaviour, showing that programmes should be targeted towards offenders who are likely to complete the course and are part of a wider therapeutic approach

Question 10

How does the short term effects of anger management compare to the long term

Answer 10

• most assessments are short term, longer term ones are difficult to follow up
  -Mcguire 2008 looked at a number of such studies and found some instances of reoffending in reoffending behaviour after a year compared with individuals just on probation

Question 11

What is the relationship between anger, aggression, crime

Answer 11

-if anger doesn’t relate to aggression, then anger management is irrelevant
-Loza and Loza-fanous claim link between anger and agression is based on lab studies using students
- this suggests crime can take place without anger acting as a prominent antecedent