The increased response to the problem of sexual violence has been the passing of civil commitment laws that allow for confinement and treatment of sex offenders following the completion of their criminal sentence. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether sex offenders who were recommended for civil commitment by evaluators differed as a group from those who were not. It was hypothesized that those offenders who were selected for civil commitment would be more likely than other sex offenders to be diagnosed with a paraphilia disorder or antisocial personality disorder and those offenders recommended for commitment would display significantly higher risk assessment scores and more likely to display other risk factors related to recidivism. Archival data were used to study 450 adult male sex offenders who had been convicted of at least 1 felony sex offense and evaluated for civil commitment in Florida between July 1, 2000, and June 30, 2001. The hypotheses were supported by the data, suggesting that Florida evaluators selected the worst sex offenders for civil commitment as determined by empirically based risk considerations. The results provide encouraging data suggesting that the highest risk sex offenders are being appropriately selected for commitment. Tables, references