Minnesota’s Sex Offender Commitment Program: Would an Empirically-Based Prevention Policy Be More Effective?

Abstract

Minnesota’s sex offender commitment scheme is not just a bad idea; it likely has bad consequences. It is a huge and disproportionate sink for resources that ight be put to more effective use in the fight against sexual violence. Worse, its demand for resources will continue to grow, thus predetermining to a large extent how prevention and treatment dollars are spent. It is very possible that a more rational allocation of these resources would actually prevent more violence than the allocation that is automatically produced by the sex offender commitment scheme. At the very least, the fight against sexual violence demands a full, careful, and empirically-based study of the optimal approach to sexual violence.

Keywords: sex offender, Minnesota commitment laws, sexual violence laws, sexual violence protection, sexual offender commitment, empirical study