Background

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Washington and Minnesota began a national trend when they became the first states to enact statutes to allow civil commitment of sex offenders after their release from prison [1]. In contrast to criminal imprisonment, civil commitment is considered by the Supreme Court of the United States to be nonpunitive, and a person subject to it is held in a civil facility for an indefinite duration. The law authorizing civil confinement utilized the frightening and seemingly authoritative phrase “sexually violent predators”(SVPs) to designate offenders set to be diverted to civil facilities [2, 3]. The definitions of SVP vary by jurisdiction but generally entail a finding—with involvement of a mental health professional—that an offender has a high risk of reoffending and some mental disorder. In 1997, the Supreme Court legally sanctified the new SVP laws when it issued its decision in Kansas v. Hendricksupholding the constitutionality of the Kansas civil commitment statute [4].