Practice Profile: Interventions with Violent Adult Males Convicted of an Offense

This practice comprises interventions with violent adult males that aim to reduce their likelihood of reoffending, especially violent reoffending. Program components include anger control, cognitive skills and empathy training, and relapse prevention. The practice is rated Promising for reducing general reoffending and violent reoffending.

Practice Goals/Target Population

Violent adult male offenders include those identified as violent through official contact with the criminal justice system or through self-reports. Violent offenses include assault, robbery, kidnapping, gun violence, and homicide. (For this practice, domestic violence, sexual offending, and violent offenses committed by individuals with personality or mental disorders were not included as part of the targeted violent behavior, as they are often viewed as distinct from general violent offending.) The goal of these interventions is to reduce their likelihood of reoffending, especially violent reoffending.

Practice Activities

Most interventions are delivered in group format, often in prison-based or other secure settings. There are a variety of program components that may be part of these interventions, including

• Anger control, which includes any components or techniques that address the anger of the individual, including anger recognition, arousal awareness, arousal reduction, or specific interventions such as Aggression Replacement Training
• Cognitive skills training, which includes teaching cognitive-behavioral skills, problem-solving exercises, identification of cognitive distortions that may contribute to antisocial behavior, and behaviors that are nonviolent/prosocial equivalents to antisocial behaviors (Henwood et al. 2015)
• Moral training, which includes training to help develop positive self-image and identity, learning positive social behaviors, and using moral judgment to make decisions (Hobler 1999)
• Basic education, which includes lessons on life skills (such as literacy)
• Role play, which is a training method that allows subjects to practice different behavioral responses
• Empathy training, during which they are shown the known harmful effects of violent crime on victims, write hypothetical apology letters to victims, read victim impact statements, watch videos of victims describing the impact of the crime, and participate in group therapy with role play (Day, Casey, and Gerace 2010)
• Relapse prevention, which includes training in personal responsibility, decreasing deviant interests, identifying high-risk situations, and avoiding and coping with high-risk situations (Marques et al. 2005)
• Homework assignments, which require participants to rehearse skills or training outside of the intervention context (Joliffe and Farrington 2007)
• Electronic monitoring, which uses cellular and GPS technology to track subjects in real time while they are in the community (Gies et al. 2013)

Joliffe and Farrington (2007) included additional tests—called moderator analyses—to see if any of the components (i.e., anger control, cognitive-skills training, role-playing, empathy training, and relapse prevention) strengthened the likelihood that interventions with violent adult males improved recidivism outcomes. Results showed that some of the components produced a statistically significant positive effect on recidivism outcomes. For example, interventions that included anger control and taught cognitive skills were more effective in reducing general reoffending rates of violent adult males, compared with programs that did not include those components (though there was no impact on violent reoffending). Furthermore, interventions that used role-playing were more effective in reducing general reoffending and violent reoffending, compared with interventions that did not include role-playing. However, interventions that used empathy training were less successful in reducing general and violent reoffending, compared with interventions that did not use empathy training. Finally, interventions that used relapse prevention were more effective in reducing general reoffending, compared with interventions that did not include relapse prevention; however, these interventions had no statistically significant impact on violent reoffending.

These sources were used in the development of the practice profile:

These sources were used in the development of the practice profile:

Day, A., S. Casey, and A. Gerace. 2010. “Interventions to Improve Empathy Awareness in Sexual and Violent Offenders: Conceptual, Empirical, and Clinical Issues.” Aggression and Violent Behavior 15(3):201–08.

Gies, Stephen V., Randy Gainey, Marcia I. Cohen, Eoin Healy, Martha Yeide, Alan Bekelman, and Amanda Bobnis. 2013. Monitoring High-Risk Gang Offenders with GPS Technology: An Evaluation of the California Supervision Program. Final Report. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice.

Henwood, Kevin S., Shihning Chou, and Kevin Browne. 2015. “A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Effectiveness of CBT Informed Anger Management.” Aggression and Violent Behavior 25: 280–92.

Hobler, B. 1999. “Correctional Education: Now and in the Future.” Journal of Correctional Education 50(3):102–105.

Marques, J. K., M. Wiederanders, D.M. Day, C. Nelson, and A. Van Ommeren. 2005. “Effects of a Relapse Prevention Program on Sexual Recidivism: Final Results from California’s Sex Offender Treatment and Evaluation Project (SOTEP).” Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment 17(1):79–107.

Following are CrimeSolutions-rated programs that are related to this practice:

Global Positioning System for High-Risk Gang Offenders (California)

Why might a practice's outcome ratings differ from the ratings of specific programs encompassed by that practice?