You're right - a big boy (young man) should not be allowed to frighten the household with fits of temper. I'm not sure what sort of system you used with punishment but perhaps that needs to be fine tuned by a mental health or parenting professional. Consequences do work when "the price is right" so it's worth revisiting this technique with someone who can guide you. In addition, you should probably send this young man for some professional counseling of his own. If it doesn't do the trick, a serious anger-management program (the kind that wife batterers are referred to) in a group format should be the next stop. In addition, you can ask him if he'd like some help for his upset and see if he'd be willing to try Bach Flower Therapy. Consult a Bach practitioner for best results (i.e. to get the proper individualized mixture for him) but if you can't do that, visit a Bach site like www.bachcentre.com to get a description of the remedies that can guide you. Especially consider "vine," "cherry plum" for explosive rage and "impatiens" (if he blows up due to irritability) or "holly" (if he blows up when he feels offended), "vervain" (if he blows up because he doesn't think things are fair or right) "mustard" (if he blows up due to depressed mood).  All the best,   Sarah Chana

Same with my kid. Taking away his driving privileges helped.

We called a police office to come talk to our kid about his fits of anger and that made a big difference.

Our son had tantrums several times a week so we instituted a reward plan that gave him a certain amount of cash for have a tantrum free week. He's pretty hungry for the big bucks so this has really reduced his temper!