Criminal Law Commons^™

Rethinking The Indefinite Detention Of Sex Offenders, Fredrick E. Vars

Fredrick E Vars

Thousands of sex offenders in the United States are being held indefinitely under civil commitment programs. The analysis in this Article suggests that none (or precious few) belong there. Specifically, in a large dataset, an instrument as good as the one most widely used by experts (the “Static-99”) could not identify even one sex offender who met the legal standards for commitment. Supplementing such instruments with additional information appears not to improve matters, so the failure of the instrument is profoundly disturbing. There are three possible responses: (1) improve instruments to meet existing standards; (2) lower the standards; and (3) …