Y2: Psychology: Criminal: Anger Management

People with aggressive behaviour that needs to be controlled to prevent harm to themselves and others.

Their behaviour could be putting themselves or other people in danger due to not realising their have anger issues or as a result of an offence.

Cognitive Behavioural Treatment (CBT).

Reasons behind the aggressive behaviour.

Alternative ways to react to a situation that would have led to anger previously.

1) Cognitive preparation
2) Skill acquisition
3) Application and practice

1) Cognitive preparation
- Focused on cognitive side
- Identifying situations that provoke anger
- Helped to recognise when an aggressive outburst is likely to occur
- Also consider the negative impact of their anger on others

2) Skill acquisition
- Focused on the behavioural side
- Learn strategies to help control their physiological reactions like counting to 10
- Strategies such as counting to ten would replace anger with relaxation

3) Application and practice
- Focused on the behavioural side
- Try out the skills learnt through role play (e.g. minor genuine provocation)
- Positively reinforced for appropriate responses
- Conducted in controlled environments to reduce potential harm

1) Occurs twice-weekly for an average of 6 weeks with a trained practitioner running it - often a forensic psychologist
2) Happens in groups to increase cohesion of people, encouraging them to listen
3) Often start with ‘check-ins’ and gradually evolves to a conversation of what makes people angry
4) Uses strategies such as identifying what triggers anger and learning to control them
5) Focuses on progress

1) How to stop anger affecting you

2) The difference between anger and rage

P - Hormone therapy is an alternative treatment
E - It aims to reduce criminality by inhibiting the production of testosterone and may be seen as a faster acting treatment
E - This is because biological treatments start working immediately whereas anger management programmes may take up to 10 weeks to complete with a waiting list beforehand

P - More expensive than hormone treatment
E - The sessions are run by a trained professional and can involve group and one-to-one work
E - Therefore more expensive due to the practitioner needing to be paid and tax payer money is used

P - Hunter (1993)
E - Found considerable reduction in the impulsiveness following an AM programme
E - Thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the treatment
P - Howells et al (2005)
E - Found that AM programmes don’t guarantee improvement unless the ppt is motivated to change
E - Therefore showing that they should only be given to those who are willing to change and that when they are, they work

P - No side effects
E - Whereas hormone treatment could lead to side effects such as drowsiness
E - If there are no side effects then this means that the treatment will be more likely to be completed with lack of harm caused
P - Can lead to domestic abuse
E - Men who were convicted of domestic violence were found to be less physically violent following an AM programme but were more verbally abusive
E - Therefore the programmes may highlight other ways offenders can hurt people, questioning their effectiveness

P - Poor
E - There is a lack of focus on the harm caused to the victim of the offender and it instead focuses on the triggers that causes anger
E - Therefore they may fail to understand the morality issues which could potentially lead to reoffending
P - Poor
E - Some may be forced into the programme as a condition of release
E - This means it has high levels of social control meaning the offenders rights may be compromised

P - Anger management programmes give offenders life skills
E - The programme focuses on the trigger of aggression and new ways to react in those situations
E - Therefore can lead to helping people understand what makes them angry to help them avoid it and lower the risk to themselves and others

P - Anger management programmes can take up to 10 weeks, occurring twice-weekly
E - This is slower than hormone treatment which can take effect instantly
E - However could be more effective long term as people learn life skills in AM programmes to help them in the future whereas hormone treatment is always a short term solution