Dangerousness and Commitment of the Mentally Disordered in the United States

Abstract

This article describes recent developments in mental health laws in the United States, especially as they relate to uses of the concept of "dangerousness" in the civil and criminal commitment of the mentally ill. In addition to providing a brief overview of the U.S. legal system and noting the importance of the Rule of Law, we review the historical development and current status of the relevant laws, provide some basic epidemiological statistics, and refer to some of the considerable body of extant empirical research in the field.

Origen Del Paradigma De Riesgo

“…La norma no sólo abrió la puerta para que los psiquiatras se convirtieran en verdaderos funcionarios de la higiene pública, sino que consolidó la relación de dicha disciplina al interior de los dispositivos de control, en especial, se les otorgó la legitimidad para determinar quien o quienes eran inimputables. 134 Como se podrá apreciar, estas breves consideraciones sobre los inicios de institucionalización del poder-saber psiquiátrico para que no sólo pudieren identificar a los sujetos inimputables, sino que además ejercieran una suerte de protección de la sociedad frente a los individuos "anormales" aun se encuentra lejos de una conceptualización patológica de la criminalidad. Esta ley se mueve aun en la excepcionalidad de la locura y, en principio, no choca con el derecho penal clásico que castiga por el delito cometido y no por las tendencias internas del individuo.…”

Literature-based Recommendations for Suicide Assessment in the Emergency Department: A Review

“…Consequently, the criteria and methods for doing so vary from state to state (12,13). Since the development of these laws in the 1900s, different states have imposed different time frames for holds that range from 1 to 30 days (12).…”

The Clinical Application of Risk Assessment in the Treatment-Planning Process

“…According to Monahan and Shah (1989), recent resurgence of interest in the utility of risk assessments is also due to the reliance on dangerousness as a criterion for commitment of civil patients (e.g., Lessard v. Schmidt, 1972) and due to the recent research on improved accuracy of the prediction methodology. Dangerousness has generally been considered a concept that is defined based on the impact of the violent behavior on society (Shostakovich, 1989).…”