Danger-Creation Doctrine Law and Legal Definition
Danger creation doctrine refers to a principle whereby the state is made liable for the harm inflicted on a person by a third party, when state's affirmative conduct places the person in jeopardy.
State officials can be liable for the acts of third parties where those officials created the danger that caused the harm. To make out a proper danger creation claim, a plaintiff must demonstrate that (1) the charged state entity and the charged individual actors created the danger or increased plaintiff's vulnerability to the danger in some way; (2) plaintiff was a member of a limited and specifically definable group; (3) defendants' conduct put plaintiff at substantial risk of serious, immediate, and proximate harm; (4) the risk was obvious or known; (5) defendant acted recklessly in conscious disregard of that risk; and (6) such conduct, when viewed in total, is conscience shocking. [Currier v. Doran, 242 F.3d 905 (10th Cir. N.M. 2001)]
