SEXUAL PREDATORS AND LEGAL MENTAL-ILLNESS FOR CIVIL COMMITMENT

Sexual predator statutes, as well as civil commitment statutes general ly, fail to provide criteria of eligibility generating an appropriate conception of legal mental illness. As a result, experts are unable to offer, and courts are unable to evaluate, appropriate testimony relev ant to the subject's standing as mentally ill under these statutes. Co mmitment statutes must provide criteria of eligibility for some legal status in a manner that fulfills the discriminative and justificatory functions and allows integration of the roles of the expert witness, t he court, and the law maker. Expert testimony in the form of descripti ve diagnosis and explanation of the relationship between the impairmen t and the psychological operations specified in the criteria of eligib ility would provide the court with the information it needs in order t o determine whether the subject of the commitment petition demonstrate s legal mental illness for the purpose of commitment.