IntroductionThe federal and state governments have laws that allow for the legal solitary confinement of sex offenders deemed to pose a risk to themselves or others. In the case of Kansas v. Hendricks (1997), the United States Supreme Court established the following criteria that potential offenders must meet to be civilly committed: 1) a history of sexual crimes; 2) a mental disorder or impairment; 3) some form of volitional impairment; and 4) a significant risk of committing a sexual offense in the future. To meet the fourth criterion, governments have implemented the use of actuarial risk assessment tools (ARAI) such as Static-99 and Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool-Revised (MnSOST-R) (Miller, Amenta, & Conroy, 2005 ). A study by Boccaccini, Murrie, Caperton, and Hawes (2009) examines reliance on STATIC-99 and MnSOST-R during a Texas screening process for civil sex offenders. The study sought to expand the minimal known knowledge of the predictive validity of the STATIC-99 and MsSOST-R in determining whether sex offenders will reoffend upon release from prison. First, the study focused on whether the scores sex offenders received on the ARAI were associated with their progress through the state's civil commitment process for sexually violent predators—in essence, whether high scores on the ARAI were related with officials' decision to promote sex offenders to the next category. phase of the evaluation process. Second, the researchers investigated the predictive validity of the ARAIs in determining the recidivism rate among non-committed offenders who had a minimum of 2.25 years to reoffend. The researchers also investigated the importance of testing for local validity… halfway through the paper… the commitment process cannot rely solely on scores from these ARAIs when making civil commitment decisions for sex offenders . Factors such as age and past criminal history must be evaluated along with these ARAIs to make a final decision. Additionally, clinicians must create and evaluate local data when interpreting ARAI results. Works Cited Boccaccini, M. T., Murrie, D. C., Caperton, J. D., & Hawes, S. W. (2009). Field validity of the STATIC-99 and MnSOST-R among sex offenders evaluated for civil commitment as sexually violent predators. Psychology, public policy and law, 15(4), 278-314. doi: 10.1037/a0017232Miller, H. A., Amenta, A. E., & Conroy, M. A. (2005). Assessments of sexually violent predators: Empirical evidence, strategies for practitioners, and research directions. Law and Human Behavior, 29, 29–54. doi: 10.1007/s10979-005-1398-y