• Question: Could it be possible to stop aggression in a person

    Asked by anon-181156 to Laura on 4 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Laura Hemming

      Laura Hemming answered on 4 Jun 2018:


      Really interesting question James! Being the optimist that I am, I would like to think that yes, it is possible to at least reduce aggression in somebody, possibly also to ‘stop’ it. I think this because research suggests that aggression is often a result of a combination of bad life experiences. Whilst we can’t necessarily change the life experiences that somebody goes through, what we can do is change how they THINK about those experiences, and what emotions they might feel because of these experiences. Unfortunately I think that currently our criminal justice system does not focus enough on this, and instead only ‘punishes’ people who are aggressive rather than helping them to change their aggression. Hopefully though, if we can keep producing research which shows that this approach is effective, then maybe one day the criminal justice system will take notice of it and change to this approach!

Comments