Citation

Schopp RF, Sturgis BJ. Behav. Sci. Law 1995; 13(4): 437-458.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/bsl.2370130402

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Sexual predator statutes, as well as civil commitment statutes generally, 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 relevant to the subject's standing as mentally ill under these statutes. Commitment 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, the court, and the law maker. Expert testimony in the form of descriptive diagnosis and explanation of the relationship between the impairment and the psychological operations specified in the criteria of eligibility would provide the court with the information it needs in order to determine whether the subject of the commitment petition demonstrates legal mental illness for the purpose of commitment.

Language: en