Violent storms and violent people - How meteorology can inform risk communication in mental health law

Meteorology is often thought of as afield with highly developed techniques for forecasting rave and severe events. Risk assessment of another type of rare and severe event - violence to others - occurs in mental health law The analogy between these two forms of risk assessment is explored in this article. How meteorologists go about assessing the risk of harmful weather is described. Implications from the meteorological analogy ave drawn for one aspect of violence prediction that is routinely ignored in mental health law: the communication of risk ''forecasts.''