Strategic Approach to Group Anger Management With Incarcerated Murderers

• NCJ Number: 130659
• Journal: Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume: 16 Issue: 3/4 Dated: (1991) Pages: 93-101
• Author(s): S Napolitano; L G Brown
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 9 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program Description (Demonstrative)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented at the annual meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Los Angeles, California, 1990.

Annotation

Forty-three male murderers incarcerated at the California Men's Colony, a medium security facility, were observed as they participated in a 12-week anger management course. The focus of the study was on their changing attitudes toward their own culpability and the efficacy of treatment programs.

Abstract

During the four stages observed over the 12-week period, the inmates' resistive responses were actively encouraged. In the first stage, the participants were apathetic and negative toward the treatment. The second stage was marked by increased interest, participation, and questioning. As they moved into the third stage of treatment, the participants began to rebel against the anger management techniques they were learning by defending previously used coping methods and criticizing rational approaches to anger control. In the final stage, participants began to accept and practice anger management. The authors maintain that the participants' active opposition to the treatment was an essential key to their eventual adoption of anger management skills. 10 references (Author abstract modified)