“Civil” Commitment of the Mentally Ill and the Need for Data on the Prediction of Dangerousness

Despite a legal trend toward adopting “dangerousness toward self and others” as the criterion for civil commitment of psychologically abnormal individuals, a review of efforts to develop methods for predicting suicidal & assaultive behaviors indicates that present predictive ability is grossly inadequate. Conditions for high risk research that should be undertaken to gain a data base for more acceptable statistical & clinical prediction of dangerousness are outlined.