What Are the Ethical Issues Involved in Risk Assessment

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The Answer is Main points:
• The key ethical issue involved in risk assessment is that there are no reliable methods to predict future violent behavior.
• Most psychologists and psychiatrists acknowledge that they cannot predict risk well, and multiple research studies confirm that.
• Preventative detention is ethically problematic because a person is held based on unreliable predictions of future dangerousness.
• At the same time, the courts do not hesitate to rely on unreliable predictions by experts not only in civil commitment cases but also in the death penalty cases.
• Death penalty cases are especially problematic because "future dangerousness" weighed against death should only include dangerousness in prison since the alternative in life in prison without parole.
• Another ethical dilemma for psychologists and psychiatrists is presenting risk assessment information to jurors and judges: mental health experts know that clinical risk assessment is better perceived by jurors and judges but it is a less accurate method than actuarial risk assessment.

What Are the Ethical Issues Involved in Risk Assessment

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