Two experiments find that support for civil commitment procedures for sexually violent predators is based primarily upon the retributive rather than incapacitative goals of respondents. Two discrete samples composed of students (N=175) and jury-eligible citizens (N=200) completed experimental surveys assessing their support or opposition to scenarios in which a sexual predator was to be released after completing his criminal sentence. Respondents were sensitive to likelihood of recidivism only when the initial sentence was sufficiently punitive. When initial sentence was lenient, respondents strongly supported civil commitment without regard to future risk. Results are discussed in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Kansas v. Hendricks (1997) on the constitutionality of civil commitment laws for sexually violent predators. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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机译：两项实验发现，对性暴力掠食者的民事承诺程序的支持主要基于受访者的报应而非丧失能力的目标。由学生（N = 175）和有陪审员资格的公民（N = 200）组成的两个离散样本完成了实验调查，评估了他们对刑满后要释放性掠食者的支持或反对。只有当最初的句子足够惩罚时，受访者才对累犯的可能性敏感。当最初的判决宽大时，受访者坚决支持民事承诺，而不考虑未来的风险。根据美国最高法院在堪萨斯州诉亨德里克斯案（Kansas v.Hendricks，1997）中关于针对性暴力掠食者的民事承诺法是否符合宪法的裁决，对结果进行了讨论。版权所有（C）2007 John Wiley＆Sons，Ltd.
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