Tuesday Topic, with Christine Rutter, looks at "anger management" courses designed to help control offenders' aggression.

WHEN I'm on the pitch, I'm a completely different animal and it's an animal I'm just trying to tame."

Revealing words from hot-headed Arsenal soccer striker Ian Wright who has turned to counselling to control his anger following another carpeting from the FA.

Wright is treading the same thorny path as scores of people from East Lancashire who are attempting to shed their aggression. But local people are taking one step further than counselling and enrolling on an intensive anger management programme run by Lancashire's Probation Service for violent offenders in the county.

And while Wright's short-fuse has landed him in hot water with the football authorities for malicious play, sly digs and inciting the crowd, his aggressive antics have never put him behind bars.

Not true of some on the anger course whose violence has put them in the slammer. Fortunately for these people the course is a huge success second time around as well as for offenders convicted of their first offence of violence or threat of violence. Vivian Horsley, course co-ordinator, said: "It is always good for people such as Wright that once he recognises he has a problem then he can start to look at ways to deal with it.

"We are all angry at times but some people have serious problems controlling it and just go over the top.

"It is an important part of life dealing with frustrations and confrontations but some lack the social skills to deal with them. They all have different triggers.

"The course is intensive, it challenges people and gets them to look at their problems and change their behaviour patterns for the benefit of the whole society and to stop them re-offending. Many offenders were actually victims themselves."

Its successes include:

A 25-year-old man who had a lengthy history of serious violence such as GBH. People viewed him as the 'hard man' in his areas and he was constantly challenged by others.

He tried to control his temper but lacked the social skills to deal with the situations. He hated anyone invading his personal space.

The course helped him understand his triggers, ways to control his temper and skills such as negotiation. He also gave up alcohol.

A young man deliberately broke a man's legs in a gang rivalry situation.

During the course he dealt with the violence and accepted his actions were wrong. He is a respectable young man now with a job.

One man held his terrified relative at gunpoint and fired a shot as a warning to the victim. The man had always felt as though his views were not felt within the family. The course helped him understand the reasons for his anger and he is now able to control it. He has never re-offended.

The course is run in groups of eight, mixed sex and ages, who meet for eight weekly sessions. To be assigned to the course the probation service assess an offender's suitability and then it is up to the magistrates to make the final decision.

The Blackburn programme has a 70 per cent success rate with individuals able to control their temper and replace anger with assertiveness.

Sessions include identifying situations which arouse anger, analysing offences, investigating consequences of alcohol and drugs, developing responsibility, switching assertiveness for anger, confronting the victim's feelings, learning to avoid conflict and looking at ways to cope in the future.

"We have been running the programmes for the past five years and 70 per cent of all the people who complete the course become more self-aware and are more able to control their anger," said Peter Simpson, assistant chief probation officer for the Lancashire Probation Service in Preston.

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