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

In this brief report, we describe the development of a brief 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.