Effects of the Dangerousness Standard in Civil Commitment

This study presents data from a large statewide sample of civil commitment respondents, which challenge beliefs about the deleterious effects of the dangerousness standard on the mentally ill and on mental hospitals. Using objective behavioral criteria, this study finds that the mentally ill brought into the civil commitment process and those committed by the courts to involuntary hospitalization are not limited to the violent, much less the violent to others. Their dangerousness is often toward self and is nonviolent. Many even have no allegations of dangerous behavior. Furthermore, most who are violent do not reach high levels of violence. Reasons for continuation of the beliefs that the dangerousness standard causes the abandonment of the nondangerous mentally ill and causes the filling of mental hospitals with the violent are discussed.