Controlling "Dangerous" People

Abstract

The label "dangerous" often has been applied in America to persons whose major threat lay in the fact that they offended the moral or esthetic sensibilities of those holding power. In the America of the Revolutionary period, there was comparatively little violent crime, but by today's standards, punishments tended to be harsh and/or humil iating. The mentally aberrant were seen as especially dangerous, since their condition was traced to a devilish infestation, and they were handled with great brutality. Blacks, too, often restive under slavery, were regarded as dangerous persons. Today, similar kinds of ascriptions as "dangerous" are applied to criminals, mental patients, and minorities—with similarly unconvincing evidence to justify the treatment such persons often receive. Danger ought to be determined on a social basis, not by theo logical or medical dictation, and the category ought to in clude all (but only) forms of human and group action which represent real threats.