Differences in Legal and Medical Standards in Determining Sexually Violent Predator Status‪.‬

I. INTRODUCTION Few crimes elicit public concern, fascination, and outrage like sexual offenses. (1) Furthermore, some of the worst sexual offenses are committed by individuals commonly referred to as "sexually violent predators." Sexually violent predators are those "who target strangers, have multiple victims, or commit especially violent offenses." (2) Public concern, and "moral panic" (3) in the most extreme cases, over sexual offenders and their likelihood of recidivism has led several states to adopt strict laws that deal with the threat of violent sexual offenders. (4) States have enacted laws that require longer sentences, have more stringent release conditions (such as heightened offender registration requirements), and provide for the indefinite civil commitment of sexually violent predators. (5) The purpose of this Article is to explore current sexually violent predator ("SVP") laws and to discuss the problems caused by disparities between the legal and medical definitions of an offender's "mental abnormality" in determining SVP status.