Juvenile Justice Anger Management (JJAM) Treatment for Girls

Book excerpt: The Juvenile Justice Anger Management (JJAM) Treatment for Girls is a manualized anger management and aggression reduction treatment designed for adolescent girls and young women placed in residential juvenile justice facilities. This gender-specific treatment is an 8-week, cognitive-behavioral group intervention that consists of 16 90-minute sessions. The JJAM Facilitator Manual includes a user-friendly, session-by-session guide, along with the accompanying workbook materials for youth participants. JJAM addresses the unique gender- and developmental-needs of girls and young women in juvenile justice system, such as the link between relational and physical aggression, the importance of strengthening and repairing damaged relationships, and the need to transfer skills learned in a facility to day-to-day life in the community following discharge. Session activities elicit real-life examples from participants so that activities and content can be tailored to the characteristics, needs, and interests of the specific girls and young women in each group. JJAM was developed through a rigorous research process and is identified as an empirically based program and empirically supported treatment. Studies have shown that JJAM significantly reduced anger and aggression among girls in residential juvenile justice facilities, making it an essential resource for any clinician working on anger management treatment.