PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - S Sreenivasan AU - LE Weinberger AU - T Garrick TI - Expert testimony in sexually violent predator commitments: conceptualizing legal standards of "mental disorder" and "likely to reoffend" DP - 2003 Dec 01 TA - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online PG - 471--485 VI - 31 IP - 4 4099 - http://jaapl.org/content/31/4/471.short 4100 - http://jaapl.org/content/31/4/471.full SO - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law2003 Dec 01; 31 AB - The most recent type of civil commitment for dangerous sex offenders is found under the sexually violent predator laws. Forensic psychiatrists or psychologists must render an opinion as to whether the sex offender has a diagnosed mental disorder and, as such, represents a risk to public safety if released from custody into the community. Thus, expert testimony provided by these professionals has taken a central role in the commitment determinations. There is considerable debate as to what disorders predispose individuals to sexual recidivism and what the term "likely" signifies. In this article, the authors explore the debate in terms of whether Antisocial Personality Disorder is a qualifying diagnosed mental disorder for classification as a sexually violent predator and how a likely threshold of risk of sexual recidivism can be conceptualized.