It can be said that anger is a natural part of life. After all, it is often emotions like anger or fear that trigger survival instincts such as defending oneself from attacks. Every one of us gets angry at some time or another about something, but some people are more easily provoked to anger than others. Hopefully this isn't the case for anyone you know, but sometimes a person's anger can get so far out of control that the person does inappropriate and often illegal things. If it gets to this point, anger management classes are often needed. In order to determine what sort of classes are needed, Risk and Needs Assessment, Inc has created a few anger management tests that can be found on a website called the Anger Management Test site.

The Anger Management Test site is used in the legal system to determine what sort of anger management problem a defendant or inmate has and what should be done to treat them.  There are different anger management tests for adults and juveniles.  Generally, anger management tests are graded using several different scales to determine exactly what an offender's level of anger is, and what kind of anger. The anger management tests for adults and juveniles are a general defendant questionnaire and a 'domestic violence index'. They generally incorporate the DSM-IV's definitions of substance abuse and other disorders.

There are several different scales to each anger management test. The scales for the general defendant questionnaire are as follows;

Truthfulness- This is a way to detect how truthful someone is in taking the test and in general.

Alcohol- This identifies if the person has a tendency toward alcohol abuse and, if so, how severe it is.

Drug Use- This is similar to the Alcohol scale, but measures the level at which a person abuses illegal substances (heroin, cocaine, marijuana, etc).

Substance Abuse Dependency- Related to the Drug and Alcohol scales, this measures if a person is addicted or dependent on abused substances and, if so, how severe the addiction is.

Violence/Lethality Scale- This measures a person's tendency to commit violent acts out of anger toward oneself or others. People who have mild anger management test 'scores' are usually not likely to do anything seriously harmful when angry, but those on the high end of this anger management test scale are often destructive, suicidal or homicidal.

Antisocial Scale- This anger management test scale measures a person's antisocial attitudes such as defiance of authority or norms in society, and their behavior from such attitudes. People who have anger toward society in general tend to be aggressive or violent, even if their perceptions of society aren't completely accurate.

Stress Coping Abilities Scale- Much of anger that leads to illegal or violent acts involves an inability to manage stress in a constructive way.

The anger management scales are very similar for juveniles and the adult domestic violence assessment. The purpose for anger management tests is to help identify which areas need the most work so that they can get the most effective type of anger management treatment. Hopefully you will never have to experience any of these anger testing sites, but they can be very helpful in the rehabilitation of offenders and reducing recidivism rates.