Anger, Violence, and Recidivism in Justice System Involved Youth

Abstract

Anger is considered integral for motivating youths’ criminal activity. To assess how anger and its features (fuse and duration) are associated with youths’ patterns of violence and offending, we studied official risk and (re)offending data among a sample of justice-involved youth (Mage = 14.87, SD = 1.40) in the United States (N = 548). Short anger fuse was associated with increased likelihood of being currently violent, whereas prolonged anger was related to current violence only in mid- to late-adolescence. Youth who had exclusively nonviolent prior(s) were at greater odds of nonviolent recidivism if they reported a short fuse. Alternatively, youth who had violent prior(s) were at greater odds of reoffending if they reported prolonged anger. Overall reported anger was associated with current violence, but not recidivism. This suggests that, in youth, short fuse predicts the continuation of a nonviolent offending pattern, whereas, among violent offenders, prolonged anger predicts recidivism.