The last decade has seen signifi cant developments in how legal and political institutions have identifi ed, and acted upon, their obligations to safeguard adults from other individuals within society.1 These developments have been broad and multifaceted. At one level, the concern of law-and policy-makers has been to articulate a systematic framework for governing the safeguarding process within public authorities; at another level, the concern has been to identify the practical steps – those powers of intervention2 – that can be instigated to safeguard a person. What powers of intervention are justifi ed has been an important focal point: can it, for example, ever be justifi ed to forcibly remove a person from her private home if she is identifi ed as being at risk of abuse, has been judged to have the capacity to refuse support, and is exercising that refusal?