NCJ Number
145989
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 20 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1993) Pages: 371-387
Date Published
1993
Length
17 pages
Annotation
The author agrees with a US Supreme Court ruling that says essentially that an offender cannot be committed based solely on dangerousness.
Abstract
In Foucha v. Louisiana, the offender had been judged insane and committed to a mental facility, and after a time was judged to have regained his sanity. He sought release from the facility, but the State of Louisiana ruled against him because he was still dangerous. The US Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision, reversed the ruling, saying that civil commitment requires both dangerousness and mental illness; antisocial or psychopathic personality characteristics do not constitute mental illness. Justice Kennedy, in dissent, wrote that "it remains to be seen whether the majority, by questioning the legitimacy of incapacitative incarceration, puts in doubt the confinement of persons other than insanity acquittees." The author extends this argument, saying that dangerous or predatory sex offenders no longer can be civilly committed, but adds that sex offenders are better handled by the criminal justice than the mental health system--essentially, sex offenders should be treated just like other criminal offenders. 2 endnotes and 46 references