Criminal Law. Sex Offenders. Civil Commitment for Psychiatric Treatment

1939 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 534 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
Civil Commitment

The Civil Commitment of Sex Offenders in Light of Foucha v. Louisiana

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
RUDOLPH ALEXANDER
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Mental Health System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
Civil Commitment ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Supreme

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that an individual who has been judged insane and committed to a mental facility and who has regained his sanity but remains dangerous cannot continue to be confined. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Kennedy stated that the majority's decision might have put in doubt the civil commitment of persons other than insanity acquittees. The author of this essay contends that the Court's decision indeed did so and argues that dangerous or predatory sex offenders cannot now be civilly committed to mental institutions. The author argues also that the criminal justice system, rather than the mental health system, is more appropriate for controlling sex offenders.

Questions on Criminal Law and Incarceration

2019 ◽  
pp. 213-236
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Forensic Psychiatry ◽  
Criminal Procedure ◽  
Diminished Capacity ◽  
Questions And Answers ◽  
Self Test

This chapter presents self-test questions and answers on criminal law and incarceration in forensic psychiatry, and includes criminal procedure, criminal competencies, diminished capacity, insanity, prisoners’ rights, the death penalty, and sex offenders.

Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM) in Belgian and Dutch forensic patients

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 2063-2063
Author(s):  
K. Goethals
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Forensic Psychiatry ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
Forensic Patients ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Outcome Monitoring ◽  
Forensic Psychiatric ◽  
The University

IntroductionBy means of ROM, the efficacy of forensic psychiatric treatment can be measured in domains of risk of recidivism, level of psychopathology, and quality of life. Although, research of the efficacy of this treatment has several methodological pitfalls.ObjectivesTo review the literature of ROM in forensic psychiatry; to consider the way of implementing ROM; to present relevant instruments in the domains as mentioned above.AimsTo investigate whether forensic psychiatric treatment leads to less symptoms, and a decrease of reoffending; to investigate the correlation between degrees of psychopathology and quality of life.MethodsPatients are recruited from the University Forensic Center (UFC), Antwerp, Belgium, which is a outpatient facility for treatment of sex offenders. In the future patients from other facilities will be included. Several instruments are used to measure the degree of psychopathology, risk of recidivism, and quality of life.ResultsPreliminary results are presented and discussed in this paper.

Evaluation for Civil Commitment of Sex Offenders: A Survey of Experts

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Jackson ◽  
Derek T. Hess
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Civil Commitment

scholarly journals Protecting child offenders’ rights: Testing the constitutionality of the National Register for sex offenders

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zita Hansungule
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Sexual Offence ◽  
National Register ◽  
Sexual Offences ◽  
The Individual

The Constitutional Court recently declared the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 2007 (Act 32 of 2007) unconstitutional in its requirement that the names of child offenders be automatically included on the National Register for Sex Offenders when convicted of a sexual offence against a child or a person with disability. The Court held that automatic inclusion on the Register violated a child’s right in terms of section 28(2) to have their best interests taken into account as the paramount consideration in every matter affecting the child. The Court held that the individual circumstances of children should be taken into account and that they should be given the opportunity to be heard by the sentencing court regarding the placement of their details on the Register. The Court decided that sentencing courts should be given the discretion to decide whether to place a child on the Register or not. 

“Ravished by Some Moron”: The Eugenic Origins of the Minnesota Psychopathic Personality Act of 1939

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Ladd-Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Progressive Era ◽  
Civil Commitment ◽  
Psychopathic Personality ◽  
Sex Crimes ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Indefinite Detention ◽  
Administrative Framework

Abstract:Twenty U.S. states permit the indefinite detention of civilly committed sex offenders after the end of their prison sentences if their dangerousness is due to a “mental abnormality.” This article explores the origins of one such law by examining its predecessor, the Minnesota Psychopathic Personality Act of 1939. Passed in the wake of a panic over sex crimes and upheld by the Supreme Court in 1940, Minnesota’s psychopath statute extended a 1917 eugenics law providing for the compulsory civil commitment and institutionalization of “defectives” to persons alleged to have a psychopathic personality. Analyzing the 1917 and 1939 laws together shows how one state’s psychopath statute had less to do with psychiatric authority than with the legal and administrative framework established by Progressive-era eugenics. From the 1910s until today, dubious claims about the ability of science to identify potential criminals legitimized politically popular, but constitutionally questionable, forms of administrative and social control.

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