Dealing with Dangerousness

Crime prevention has become an increasingly important function of the criminal law of many liberal democracies, including the Netherlands. This ‘preventive turn’ in criminal law is especially noticeable in the increase (and extension) of preventive sanctions that can be imposed on (ex-)offenders. The imposition of preventive sanctions often requires that the offender is found to be dangerous, i.e., that there is an elevated risk that he or she will reoffend if released unsupervised into society. Preventive sanctions aim to reduce this risk by incapacitating, supervising and/or treating the offender. However, it is unclear what exactly is meant by ‘dangerousness’ in this context, which offenders are dangerous, how courts can determine whether an offender is dangerous, and what role risk assessments by forensic psychiatrists and psychologists can play in making this determination.

These and other questions about dangerousness and the role of risk and prevention in criminal law will be addressed at the workshop ‘Dealing with Dangerousness’, to be held at the Lorentz Center @Oort in Leiden, the Netherlands, between 2-5 April 2024.

Leading legal scholars, forensic psychiatrists and psychologists, and philosophers of law from the Netherlands and abroad will meet to explore the concept of dangerousness in criminal law, its relationship to the concept of risk, and the determination of dangerousness in court and in forensic practice. The ultimate aim of the workshop is to create an international interdisciplinary platform for collaboration and further research on preventive criminal law.