ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Page Count: 10

The Fin de Millénaire Duty to Warn or Protect
Felthous, AR
Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Director of Forensic Psychiatry and clinical assistant Professor, Southern Illinois, University School of Medicine and Chester Mental Health Center, IL

Kachigian, C
Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Director of Forensic Psychiatry and clinical assistant Professor, Southern Illinois, University School of Medicine and Chester Mental Health Center, IL

(Received 4 April 2000; accepted 2 December 2000)

Abstract

At the turn of the millennium, the authors summarize the evolution of a clinician's duty to protect third persons from a patient's violent acts over the past half century, with special emphasis on jurisprudential developments in the last decade. Four evolutionary periods are identified: Pre-Tarasoff, Inception, Diversification, and Retreat. The period of Retreat from Tarasoff in the nineties is characterized by the following approaches to Tarasoff: adoption, statutory containment, rejection of a duty to warn, rejection of a duty to control voluntary patients, and proactive circumscription of any protective duties. A more rational jurisprudential approach would permit some measure of flexibility for the proper exercise of clinical discretion.

Keywords:
forensic science, duty to warn/protect, Tarasoff, third party liability

Paper ID: JFS15106J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS15106J
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