Citation

Quattrocchi MR, Schopp RF. Behav. Sci. Law 1993; 11(2): 165-180.

Affiliation

Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex, Wisconsin 53226, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/bsl.2370110206

PMID

10150228

Abstract

The continuing controversy surrounding the Tarasoff inspired duty to protect as developed by the courts and legislatures has not adequately weighed the jurisprudential foundations of such an obligation. The authors argue that the duty's misguided thrust of social control grounded in character and status seriously violates broad principles of political morality underlying the law of social control. They conceptualize an alternative--a clinical duty to protect--that coheres with these underlying values and the limits of professional abilities. They contend that any extra-clinical intervention on the part of the psychotherapist entails a role transformation requiring independent justification.

Language: en