Table Of ContentAdvances in Preventing and Treating Violence and Aggression
Series Editor: Peter Sturmey
James K. Luiselli Editor
Applied Behavior Analysis
Treatment of Violence and
Aggression in Persons with
Neurodevelopmental
Disabilities
Advances in Preventing and Treating Violence
and Aggression
Series Editor
Peter Sturmey
Queens College and The Graduate Center
City University of New York
Flushing, NY, USA
The series publishes books focused and developed across three domains. The first is
understanding and explaining violence and aggression. Books in this domain
address such subject matter as genetics, physiology, neurobiology, cultural evolution,
biobehavioral, learning, cognitive, psychoanalytic, sociological and other
explanations of violence. The second domain focuses on prevention and treatment
for individuals and couples. Examples of books in this domain include cognitive
behavioral, behavioral, counseling, psychopharmacological, psychosocial, couples,
and family therapy approaches. They also explore extant treatment packages for
individually focused treatments (e.g., mindfulness, cognitive analytic therapies).
Within this domain, books focus on meeting the information needs of clinicians and
professionals who work in youth facilities, emergency rooms, special education,
criminal justice, and therapy settings. Finally, books in the third domain address
prevention and treatment for groups and society, including topical focus on early
intervention programs, school violence prevention programs, policing strategies,
juvenile facility reform as well as socio-legal and ethical issues. Books in this series
serve as must-have resources for researchers, academics, and upper-level
undergraduate and graduate students in clinical child and school psychology, public
health, criminology/criminal justice, developmental psychology, psychotherapy/
counseling, psychiatry, social work, educational policy and politics, health
psychology, nursing, and behavioral therapy/rehabilitation.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15332
James K. Luiselli
Editor
Applied Behavior Analysis
Treatment of Violence and
Aggression in Persons with
Neurodevelopmental
Disabilities
Editor
James K. Luiselli
Melmark New England
Andover, MA, USA
Series Editor
Peter Sturmey
Advances in Preventing and Treating Violence and Aggression
ISBN 978-3-030-68548-5 ISBN 978-3-030-68549-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68549-2
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
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Preface
Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a scientific approach to understanding and
changing human behavior, grounded in operant learning theory, and dedicated to
technologically sound procedures that are empirically evaluated, replicable, and
socially valid. From inception, and spanning five decades of treatment research,
ABA has contributed greatly to improving the lives of persons who have neurode-
velopmental disabilities including those who demonstrate violence and aggression.
This volume should be in the Springer Series, Advances in Preventing and Treating
of Violence and Aggression, addresses the most contemporary ABA practices for
assessment, intervention, training, and supervision (https://www.springer.com/
series/15332 / Advances in Preventing and Treating Violence and Aggression).
Section chapters summarize the research foundation of many methods and proce-
dures that clinicians, psychologists, behavior analysts, and related professionals can
implement effectively with children, youth, and adults in multiple service settings.
As well, the chapters highlight the multidisciplinary context of ABA treatment in
the current day.
I am grateful to Dr. Peter Sturmey, Series Editor, for supporting a book devoted
to ABA. Notably, the book was completed at the height of the 2020 COVID-19
pandemic and only possible due to the skilled production staff at Springer, dedi-
cated chapter authors, and support of my colleagues at Melmark New England. And
to my family, Tracy, Gabrielle, and Thomas, thanks for everything you teach and
give me so generously.
Andover, MA, USA James K. Luiselli
v
Contents
Part I Measurement and Assessment
Measurement and Data Recording of Aggression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Amanda N. Zangrillo, Seth G. Walker, Henry S. Roane,
William E. Sullivan, Dominik L. Keller, and Nicole M. DeRosa
Functional Behavior Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Jill M. Harper, Juliya Krasnopolsky, Melissa C. Theodore,
Christen E. Russell, and Eris J. Dodds
Functional Analysis of Violence–Aggression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Ashley M. Fuhrman, Brian D. Greer, and Wayne W. Fisher
Behavioral Risk Assessment of Violence-Aggression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Joseph N. Ricciardi
Social Validity Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
James K. Luiselli
Part II I ntervention, Training, and Supervision
Communication-Focused Treatment of Violence-Aggression . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Valdeep Saini and William E. Sullivan
Behavioral Treatment of Sexual Offending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Duncan Pritchard, Heather Penney, Veda Richards, and Nicola Graham
Inpatient and Residential Treatment of Violence Aggression . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Nicole L. Hausman, Michael P. Kranak, Molly K. Bednar,
and Louis P. Hagopian
vii
viii Contents
Training and Performance Management of Care Providers . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Raymond G. Miltenberger, Jennifer L. Cook, and Marissa Novotny
Mindfulness Care Giving and Support for Anger
and Aggression Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Nirbhay N. Singh, Giulio E. Lancioni, and Yoon-Suk Hwang
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Part I
Measurement and Assessment
Measurement and Data Recording
of Aggression
Amanda N. Zangrillo , Seth G. Walker , Henry S. Roane ,
William E. Sullivan , Dominik L. Keller, and Nicole M. DeRosa
Abstract A foundation of ABA treatment is objective, reliable, and valid measure-
ment of client responses preceding, during, and following intervention. This chapter
reviews measurement and data recording methods for documenting the effects of
behavioral treatment with persons who demonstrate aggression. The authors
describe design and implementation of these methods within clinical and research
settings including operational definitions, construction of measurement protocols,
assessing reliability, and summarizing data outcomes.
Keywords Aggression · Measurement · Data analysis
Measurement and Data Recording of Violence-Aggression
Violence-aggression includes those acts that are intended to cause physical harm
(National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, 2015). The current chapter
adopts an operant account of violence-aggression in which the intent of behavior is
not an assumed variable of interest. Henceforth, we refer to violence-aggression by
the term “aggression.”
A. N. Zangrillo (*) · S. G. Walker · D. L. Keller
Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center,
Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
H. S. Roane · W. E. Sullivan · N. M. DeRosa
State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 3
J. K. Luiselli (ed.), Applied Behavior Analysis Treatment of Violence and
Aggression in Persons with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities, Advances in
Preventing and Treating Violence and Aggression,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68549-2_1
