ABSTRACT
The cluster of concepts contained in any consideration of dangerousness, suicide and homicide is at once incredibly wide, difficult to define and all-encompassing, yet at the same time, form the core of so much public alarm about mental health that it seems inevitable that they be considered together. The correlation of mental illness with dangerousness does a conceptual violence to mental illness and dangerousness, as well as turning service users, clients or patients into frightening ogres who need to be feared. Violence is frightening to social workers because, apart from the associated danger, it is not something that they consider as part and parcel of the job. In general terms, the clinical syndromes to which workers need to pay special caution with regard to risk factors associated with dangerousness, suicide or homicide are: paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, morbid jealousy, erotomania, severe personality disorder and psychopathy.
