NCJ Number
181922
Journal
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law Volume: 4 Issue: 1/2 Dated: March/June 1998 Pages: 505-570
Date Published
March 1998
Length
66 pages
Annotation
This analysis focuses on the implications of the United States Supreme Court’s 1997 decision in Kansas v. Hendricks with respect to its implications for civil commitment generally and on therapeutic implications of the predator laws and sex offender registration and community notification laws.
Abstract
The Hendricks decision upheld the sexual predator laws. The therapeutic jurisprudence analysis of these two new statutory models revealed that sexual predator laws have serious antitherapeutic consequences for those to whom they are applied. These consequences include labeling effects and other negative effects on treatment outcome. Additional antitherapeutic effects exist for clinicians employed in predator programs and for people with mental illness who are not sex offenders. The analysis also revealed that community notification laws have both positive and negative effects for the community and for sex offenders. Restructuring these laws could increase their therapeutic potential. Changes should include avoiding the label "sexually violent predator" and converting both types of laws from prediction to risk management models. Footnotes