True: The adversarial system is one where the prosecution evidence is pitted against the evidence of the defence and the court determines guilt or innocence. In this system, the evidence of the prosecution is heard first and then the evidence of the defence. This is opposed to the inquisitorial system where the task of the court is to ascertain the facts and arrive at an eventual decision, a model used by inquests and mental health review tribunals.

False: Common Law is based on past judgement of cases. Common Law is influenced by the culture of the home country. In England, the Canon Law of the Christian Church enriched the development of English Common Law in its early stages. This Common Law came to be administered subsequently by the Royal Judges adopting the customs and principles known to them. It then grew by the experience of individual cases, which established the principles. Statutes are Acts of Parliament used to codify parts of the Law, where a myriad of individual case decisions might have made the Law uncertain. Thus, statute often helps to clarify Common Law (Gunn & Taylor 1993, p. 23).

True: Capacity is required for informed consent to be valid. The legal criteria for capacity in British law were laid down in the ruling of Re C. The requirements are that the patient believes the information being given to them, understands that information, is able to recall it and can weigh the pros and cons of various options in the balance. BURP would be an acronym (Fear 2004, p. 194; Johnstone et al 2004, p. 736).

False: Dangerousness is a fluctuating condition and cannot thus be categorized under disability. There is also a wilful aspect to the danger some people pose to others and this again is totally against the spirit of the WHO definition of disability (WHO 2001).

False: Risk assessment depends on four factors, dispositional, clinical, historical and contextual. Every psychiatric unit develops its own strategy of risk assessment based on published scientific research, not based on guidelines from the Department of Health (Gelder et al 2000, p. 2070; Stone et al 2000, p. 264).

True: In civil cases, the report is the property of the agency requesting it. A report requested by the Court or by the Crown Prosecution Service will be disclosed in open Court to both parties. A report requested by the defence solicitor, on the other hand, may be retained by the solicitor if it does not help his client.

True: Fitness to plead issues may be raised by the defence, the prosecution or the judge. It is a matter that has to be tried in a Crown Court. The plea must be proven on the balance of probabilities (if raised by the defence) or beyond reasonable doubt (if raised by the prosecution). A new jury is empanelled to decide this question.

False: More than half of patients fail to return to work after a settlement (Gelder et al 2006, p. 400).

True: Delinquency is associated with low IQ even after controlling for family factors and social status. This association may be due to the increased vulnerability to the adverse home and social influences and home background and also the increased likelihood of being apprehended (Gelder et al 2000, p. 1757; Gelder et al 2006, p. 734; Gunn & Taylor 1993, p. 324).

True: It is one of the most common of heterosexual offences. The common exhibitionist is a shy, timid and inhibited person, with little confidence in courtship or sexual performance (Gunn & Taylor 1993, p. 547; Stone et al 2000, p. 215).

True: Moreover, a further conviction following the first offence of exhibitionism dramatically increases reconviction rates (Gunn & Taylor 1993, p. 547; Stone et al 2000, p. 215).

False: The majority of learning disabled sex offenders are best treated in the community. They can usually be managed quite well with support and supervision where necessary under a probation or guardianship order (Bluglass & Bowden 1990, p. 404).

True: This would be crucial as learning-disabled sexual offenders often lack full comprehension of the gravity of their offence and its effect on the victim (Chiswick & Cope 1995, p. 74).

True: People with learning disabilities have increased suggestibility and hence an increased risk of false confessions. Therefore, they should be interviewed only in the presence of an appropriate adult. Suggestibility can be assessed clinically as well as using formal rating scales.

False: In the UK, 10% of homicides are followed by suicide. In the US, homicide followed by suicide represents 1.5% of all suicides and 5% of all homicides. They include:

False: Paedophiles are not inherently antisocial. It is more a disorder of sexual preference.

False: In a significant proportion of cases, the behaviour is modified by a combination of environmental manipulation, chemotherapy and close supervision. Often, behaviour change can take place through these measures without the development of victim empathy.

False: Shoplifting is not associated with increased prevalence of mental illness. Occasionally, shoplifting may be associated with eating disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia, substance misuse or dementia. Pure kleptomania is rare. Most patients with kleptomania have co-morbid depression, anxiety or eating disorders (Gelder et al 2000, p. 2052; Johnstone et al 2004, p. 715; Sadock & Sadock 2005, p. 2044).

False: Among the highly selected samples examined by psychiatrists, only 20–30% have a mental illness. Alcohol or substance misuse and personality disorders are common. Among those who have a mental illness, schizophrenia or paranoid psychosis are more likely. People with learning disabilities are more likely to commit a fire-setting offence or a sexual offence (Gelder et al 2000, p. 2057; Johnstone et al 2004, p. 715; Stone et al 2000, p. 203).

False: Arson is a notoriously difficult offence to detect and also to convict in court (Stone et al 2000, p. 109).

False: Taylor & Gunn (1999) reviewed the Home Office statistics in England and Wales from 1957 to 1995 and concluded that the number of homicides by the mentally ill has steadily declined at the rate of 3% per annum since the 1950s.

True: In homicide cases in general, the offender is known to 50% of male victims and 75% of female victims (Stone et al 2000, p. 118).

False: In D’Orban’s study of 89 cases of maternal filicide, only 27% were diagnosed as mentally ill. One had psychotic depression, and 14 had psychosis. Thus, a previous history of admission to psychiatric units would not be a common finding.

False: There would be multiple motives for a mother killing her child, including eliminating an unwanted child, mercy killing, psychotic illness or depression, inability to cope with the child, and spouse revenge (Bluglass & Bowden 1990, p. 527).

False: There is no direct connection between XYY and criminality or a criminal background (Bluglass & Bowden 1990, p. 376; Johnstone et al 2004, p. 548).