VIII. Sex Offenders

JurisdictionNew York

VIII. SEX OFFENDERS

A number of states have enacted legislation permitting the confinement of pedophiliacs and others who are predisposed to commit sex crimes because of an inability to control their behavior. Such confinement may be continued confinement after release from prison, or confinement of a defendant charged with an offense but not sentenced due to incapacity or a finding of irresponsibility due to mental disease or defect. Although there is mixed evidence of the effectiveness of various forms of treatment, the prognosis for such offenders is poor and recidivism is high.

The mental state of sexually violent predators does not always constitute a mental illness, as that term is defined in various state commitment statutes, and therefore sex offender commitment statutes were at first subject to constitutional challenge as failing to provide an adequate foundation for involuntary commitment. In Kansas v. Hendricks,106 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Kansas Sexually Violent Predator Act, and this law’s provisions for commitment of persons suffering a “mental abnormality” which predisposes the person commit sexual offenses so as to endanger others, has served as a paradigm for similar laws in other states, including New York.

The Court observed that dangerousness is a sufficient ground for civil commitment when coupled with an additional factor such as mental illness or mental abnormality which makes it difficult, if not impossible, for a person to control his or her dangerous behavior. State...

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