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Preferred term

duty to warn and protect  

Definition

  • Based on the Tarasoff case, in which the California Supreme Court (1976) ruled that a mental health professional who knew, or by the standards of the profession should have known, that his or her client posed a threat to another has a duty to warn the intended victim. Three conditions apply to duty to warn: (a) a special relationship exists (e.g., the therapist-client relationship), (b) a determination that the patient's conduct needs to be controlled due to the patient being dangerous or violent, and (c) there is a foreseeable victim. [Source: The Dictionary of Family Psychology and Family Therapy; duty to warn and protect]

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URI

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

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