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Dangerous Diagnoses, Risky Assumptions, And The Failed Experiment Of “Sexually Violent Predator” Commitment, Deirdre M. Smith
Dangerous Diagnoses, Risky Assumptions, And The Failed Experiment Of “Sexually Violent Predator” Commitment, Deirdre M. Smith
Oklahoma Law Review
In its 1997 opinion, Kansas v. Hendricks, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law that reflected a new model of civil commitment. The targets of this new commitment law were dubbed “Sexually Violent Predators” (SVPs), and the Court upheld indefinite detention of these individuals on the assumption that there is a psychiatrically distinct class of individuals who, unlike typical recidivists, have a mental condition that impairs their ability to refrain from violent sexual behavior. And, more specifically, the Court assumed that the justice system could reliably identify the true “predators,” those for whom this unusual and extraordinary deprivation of liberty …
California's Program For The Sexual Psychopath, Reginald S. Rood
California's Program For The Sexual Psychopath, Reginald S. Rood
Cleveland State Law Review
The basis for California's sexual psychopath program is the legal provision which establishes a state hospital as an alternative to prison for certain nonpsychotic, convicted offenders, legally defined as sexual psychopaths. The designated institution is the Atascadero State Hospital, a new facility opened in June, 1954. Its 1250 all male patient population is about sixty percent sexual psychopaths and forty percent criminal insane. This preponderance of non-psychotic patients is unique for a state hospital for the mentally ill, where, as a rule, about ninety percent of the patients are psychotic. My purpose is to discuss our program and procedures for …