Talk:Civil commitment

I think that it would be better to have separate involuntary commitment and civil commitment articles as "civil commitment" is used in a way (relating to the continued detention after finishing their prison sentences, of sex offenders) in which involuntary commitment is not used, and there are subtle differences here. --Daniel C. Boyer

But "civil commitment" usually means any court order to commit someone to a hospital involuntarily, including, but not usually, sex-offenders. Michael Hardy 18:13 22 May 2003 (UTC)

Yes, but here is the problem: "civil commitment" is used to detain sex offenders in mental hospitals or the like after their sentences are ended, but this practice is never referred to as "involuntary commitment." So "civil commitment" refers to both the entire thing and exclusively to a smaller subset. Though perhaps this is a minor concern. --Daniel C. Boyer