Emerging Problems for Staff Associated with the Release of Potentially Dangerous Forensic Patients

Abstract

Mental health professionals have been concerned recently about their liability for the actions of patients in their outpatient practices. The history of suits against clinicians for negligent release of inpatients extends back several decades since before the Tarasoff decision. The authors suggest that the same consumerism/victims' rights trends that resulted in Tarasoff and its progeny are likely to rebound again on forensic clinicians and that such pressures are likely to add to other political and social pressures that already complicate the treatment of forensic inpatients. They present three cases to illustrate the dilemmas involved in the release of forensic patients and argue that clinicians must bear significant responsibility for their current plight because of overstated claims of capacities to predict and treat aggressive behavior.