Evaluating whether an individual is dangerous to others is a public interest concern because states have an interest in protecting the safety and welfare of the public. Protection of the public is generally in the form of some type of confinement of the individual who is deemed dangerous. However, when a criminal act has not yet occurred, dangerousness alone is not sufficient to warrant confinement; a mental illness, disease, or defect, as noted in the language of most legal material, must also be present. In these cases, dangerousness to others is a civil law consideration that attempts to predict what might happen in the future if the person is not prevented from acting. In other words, dangerousness to others is a question of successfully predicting ...

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