Dr. Cavanagh's latest article, titled Anger, Violence, and Recidivism in Justice System Involved Youth, was recently published in Justice Quarterly. Is type of anger associated with patterns of violence and recidivism among justice-involved youth? In this study, we distinguished youth short fuse anger (think: fast, impulsive, poor emotion regulation) from youth prolonged anger (think: persistent, brooding anger). In a sample of justice-involved youth, we found (1) overall anger was associated with current violence, but not recidivism. (2) Short fuse anger was associated with double the odds of non-violent recidivism among youth with non-violent priors. (3) Prolonged anger was associated with double the odds of violent recidivism among youth with violent priors and older youth, suggesting a severe and persistent pattern of crime. Overall, results suggest that features of anger are differentially associated with nonviolent vs. serious, violent delinquency, and, accordingly, that evaluating anger features may have implications for juvenile justice rehabilitative programming.
The lead author, former visiting doctoral student Erinn Acland, is an accomplished artist. She drew a summary of the results, picture here:
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