Skip to main content

Search from vocabulary

Content language

Concept information

Preferred term

dangerousness  

Definition

  • Prior to the 1990s, the term dangerousness was used to describe violence risk, and more specifically, violent crime and offending behavior. Mental health professionals, typically psychiatrists and psychologists, were charged by the legal system with making predictions about future dangerousness; however, the methods by which such predictions were made relied largely on clinical judgments and rarely on scientific findings. [Source: Cultural Sociology of Mental Illness: An A-to-Z Guide; Dangerousness]

Broader concept

Belongs to group

URI

https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/dangerousness

Download this concept: