As they are locking criminals up for horrendous crimes, judges have an additional power to declare them 'dangerous'. The dictionary definition of the word dangerous is 'likely to injure or harm someone, or to damage or destroy something'.
But dangerous has a specific legal meaning within the criminal justice system. A criminal can deemed to be dangerous if they have committed a violent, sexual or terrorist offence, or a crime which holds a punishment of ten years in prison or more.
Judges can then declare a criminal dangerous if they believe there is a 'significant risk to members of the public of serious harm occasioned by the commission by him of further specified offences'. This means that judges can then impose an extended sentence.
