The short anger measure: development of a measure to assess anger in forensic populations

In this brief report we describe the development of a measure of anger that may be used by nurses and other professionals to assess anger and changes in anger with male offenders. The Short Anger Measure, a 12-item self-report measure of angry feelings and aggressive impulses, was administered to 73 male offenders. The measure showed sound psychometric properties (internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability) and concurrent validity with an established measure of anger. The potential use of the measure by nurses working in forensic settings is discussed.