ABSTRACT
D Dangerous A person can be described as constituting a danger to other people or to themselves, and by this we mean that they are likely to do other people or themselves serious physical harm, to inflict personal violence. Those at risk of causing other kinds of harm are referred to as a menace. The general notion of dangerousness is fairly easily grasped; more problematic are the signs for recognising when a person is becoming dangerous and the measures that can legitimately be taken once recognition has been established, including the differential response towards those at risk of violence directed towards the self and those likely to be violent towards others. The Butler Committee saw dangerousness as a propensity to cause serious physical injury and lasting psychological harm; they judged that very few people were 'unconditionally dangerous', but proposed, among other remedies, a new form of indeterminate sentence for dangerous offenders presenting a history of mental disorder which could not be dealt with under the Mental Health Act and for whom the life sentence is not appropriate. Home Office, (Butler) Committee on Mentally Abnormal Offenders
(1975) Report, Cmnd 6244, HMSO, Ch. 4, 'Dangerous Mentally Disordered Offenders'.
