NCJ Number
106818
Journal
Victims and Violence Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1986) Pages: 205-214
Date Published
1986
Length
10 pages
Annotation
After 10 years of court decisions that have gradually broadened the scope of the psychotherapist's duty to protect potential victims from violence, California has recently passed legislation that limits liability only to those cases where a patient has made a specific threat to an identifiable victim.
Abstract
Although this legislation has articulated the appropriate clinical response in such situations, it may have created a false sense of security for therapists treating patients who are perpetrators or victims of family violence. Through some perpetrators of violence do make a specific verbal threat, therapists are likely to encounter many more who do not verbalize a threat, but nevertheless pose a serious danger to their family members. This article briefly discusses the recent history of the duty-to-protect issue and the violence prediction literature as they relate to domestic violence. 26 references and 1 note. (Author abstract modified)