On the Justifications for Civil Commitment

Involuntary confinement is the most serious deprivation of individual liberty that a society may impose.The philosophical justifications for such a deprivation by means of the criminal process have been thoroughly explored.No such intellectual effort has been directed at providing justifications for societal use of civil commitment procedures. 1 When certain acts are forbidden by the criminal law, we are relatively comfortable in imprisoning those who have engaged in such acts.We say that the imprisonment of the offender will serve as an example to others and thus deter them from violating the law.If we * Our reflections on the justifications for civil commitment were greatly aided and in part actuated by the excellent collection of material in J.