What exactly does it mean to be "sexually dangerous"? Is this strictly a designation based on a perceived mental illness by psychiatrists?
Text of the Court opinion, (posted here by Georgetown University professor and lawyer Jonathan Turley) states, "Congress could have reasonably concluded that federal inmates who suffer from a mental illness that causes them to "have serious difficulty in refraining from sexually violent conduct...would have especially high danger to the public if released." Furthermore, it states, "Congress could also have reasobnably concluded that a reasonable number of such individuals would likely not be detained by the States if released from federal custody."
The argument appears to be that the federal government must intervene and do what state governments are not properly doing. Yet, it's hard to believe that there is any place in the United States where government is not tracking sexually violent predators -- people who would most likely be designated as "sexually dangerous."
Under Megan's Law, all 50 states are supposed to have laws that require sex offenders to register with police and report where they are living after leaving prison or when being convicted of any crime. The public also must be able to access this information.
However, a distinction should be made: This decision probably has more bearing on sexually violent predators and little bearing on sex offenders. While research polls and reporters may rarely differentiate the two and while the public may not either, there is a definitive legal differentiation that is made by the Sexual Violent Predator Act of 1995.
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