ABSTRACT
Despite the considerable extent of media hype and political sensitivities referred to earlier in this book, there have been a number of occasions where procedures and practices relating to the care and management of offenders and offenderpatients in the community have been found to be unsatisfactory. Such concerns, for example, led to the setting up in 1994 of mandatory independent inquiries into all those cases where homicides had been committed by those in contact with the mental health services. In other cases (such as homicides committed by those being managed by non-mental health services) there is no mandatory provision for an inquiry, but an internal investigation will normally be held. In this chapter, I have selected a number of inquiries for comment; a word or two of explanation is necessary concerning the somewhat arbitrary manner in which they have been chosen.