Between objective risk and perceived risk: The necessary consideration of social representations of dangerousness for an optimization of its assessment
The professionals in the fields of health and justice are increasingly asked to assess the risk of recidivism and the dangerousness of the people entrusted to them. However, for some of them, the concept of “acceptable risk” may vary depending on the individual. Our assessment depends on our specific social perceptions and representations of dangerousness. Each one of these various representations of danger has a certain social usefulness the simultaneous consideration of which – possible by means of a pluralistic approach – can become a source of enrichment for each professional as well as a means of improving the assessment of dangerousness.