anger management

Question 1

What is anger management

Answer 1

Anger management is a form of cognitive behavioural therapy and has a three stage approach.

Question 2

Three stage approach to anger management

Answer 2

1) Cognitive Preparation –The offender learns to identify the cues for their anger They reflect on events in the past when they became angry. They consider if the way that they interpreted those events was rational. The therapist’s role is to help the
offender redefine the situation as non-threatening.

2) Skill Acquisition – The offender learns skills to manage their own behaviour in anger-provoking situations. Techniques could be cognitive (positive self-talk to encourage calmness); behavioural (assertiveness training to communicate more effectively); or physiological (methods of
relaxation and meditation).

3) Application Practice – The offender has role-play opportunities to practice new skills and receive feedback. They could role-play scenarios
which in the past led to anger/violence. Successful negotiation of the role play will be met with positive reinforcement from the therapist.

Question 3

Anger management eval (+)

Answer 3

+ Anger management is a multidisciplinary approach (cognitive, behavioural and social elements are included) which acknowledges that offending is a complex social and psychological behaviour, and any attempt to address it must include these different elements.

+ Unlike behaviour modification, anger management tries to get to the root cause of offending behaviour (the thought processes that lead to anger/violence), rather than focusing on superficial surface behaviour.

Question 4

Anger management eval (-)

Answer 4

• The assumption that anger causes offending may be false. Many crimes, such as financial crime, are not motivated by anger. Even murder is not always
  motivated by anger. For example, Harold Shipman murdered over 215 of his patients during his time working as a GP, and his motivation was to alleviate their suffering.
• Anger management programmes are expensive to run as they require a highly trained specialist who is used to dealing with violent offenders. Many prisons do not have the resources to run such programmes.
• The success of anger management is based on the commitment of those who participate, and this is a problem if patients are uncooperative.