Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The Prison Journal
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (1)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Alexander, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The United States Supreme Court and the Civil Commitment of Sex Offenders

Rudolph Alexander, Jr.

Ohio State University

In Minnesota ex rel. Pearson v. Probate County of Ramsey County, Kansas v. Hendricks, Seling v. Young, and Kansas v. Crane, the U.S. Supreme Court decided cases pertaining to civil commitment of sex offenders to mental institutions. At first, the earliest case involved whether an offender, classified as a psychopathic personality, could be committed from the streets to a mental institution. More contemporary cases posed the question of whether a prisoner, diagnosed as a violent sexual predator or having an antisocial personality disorder, could be civilly committed to a mental health facility after this prisoner had served his entire sentence and was about to be released. For both questions, the Court answered in the affirmative. The Court’s rulings that incarcerated sex offenders nearing release may be civilly committed to a mental health facility have potentially ominous implications for both mental health and criminal justice policy.

Key Words: violent sex offenders • civil commitment • mental disorder

The Prison Journal, Vol. 84, No. 3, 361-378 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0032885504268184
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?