A sex offender can be a habitual incest perpetrator, a teenager who texts a picture of her naked breasts to a lover, or a frail Alzheimer’s patient locked in indefinite postprison preventive detention in a prison-like psychiatric institution, also known as “civil commitment.”

PEOPLE WHO COMMIT sexual harm have commonly experienced trauma as children or adults. Like most of us at some point in our lives, they could use therapy. But civil commitment is prison, and incarceration is psychologically destructive; indefinite detention borders on psychological torture — the opposite of therapy.

commonly experienced trauma as children or adults. Like most of us at some point in our lives, they could use therapy. But civil commitment is prison, and incarceration is psychologically destructive; indefinite detention borders on psychological torture

UNDER THE SEX offense legal regime, sexual “deviance” confers guilt while “normality” equals innocence.