Assessing dangerousness: protecting the interests of patients

Abstract

Peter Scott's (1975) characterisation of the concept of dangerousness as potentially dangerous in itself could not be more relevant than today. The principal focus of mental health policy over the last six years has been the care and treatment of seriously mentally ill people and mentally disordered offenders, and central to the successful care of the former and many of the latter is the competent assessment of the risk they pose: mostly to themselves, but occasionally to others.