Washington's sexually violent predator (SVP) law was intended to detain only a small proportion of highly dangerous sex offenders after they completed their criminal sentence. The findings of this study indicate that the sex offenders detained in Washington State had psychiatric disorders that made them higher risks for reoffending than average sex offenders. As a group, those civilly detained after completing their sentences posed a moderate to high risk for reoffending as determined by each of the actuarial measures used in this study. Rapists scored significantly higher than child molesters on both the Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool-Revised (MnSost-R) and the Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG). Consistent with previous reports, the child molesters had significantly lower scores on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) than did either the rapists or the mixed offenders. Only individuals who were admitted to the Special Commitment Center after completing their criminal sentences were included in this study. Several actuarial risk assessment instruments are commonly used in Washington State, including the MnSost-R, Static-99, Violence Risk Appraisal Guide, and SORAG. Scores for each of these instruments are commonly found in offenders' commitment evaluations or annual review evaluations. In cases where these data were not readily available, the instruments were scored by two trained raters from file information. 3 tables and 27 references