Given the empirical findings on the increased risk of criminality and violence among persons with major mental disorders (MMD), a project was designed to identify community programs that included mental health treatments, social services, and legal authority to treat offenders with MMD in the community. The results of the comparisons of the participants recruited from forensic hospitals suggest that the effectiveness of various community treatment programs can be tested. It will be necessary, however, to take into account differences in the assessed levels of risk and the other factors found to differ across sites. This is encouraging and indicates that the objectives of the study will be achieved. There were five principal reasons for researchers' decision to identify effective community programs rather than institutional treatment programs. First, community programs are more humane than long-term hospitalizations. Second, even intense, highly structured community programs are much less expensive than hospitalization or incarceration. Third, there is evidence that certain types of community treatment programs can prevent criminal reoffending even among high-risk patients. Fourth, community care prevents the loss of skills that results from long-term institutionalization and may even promote the learning of life skills and prosocial behaviors. Fifth, a community treatment program that is proven effective would give both clinicians and patients a goal to work toward, provide legal authorities with a safe alternative to hospitalization, and allow forensic hospitals to further specialize inpatient treatment. The study was designed to compare sites that differed on one or more of the features identified as characteristic of successful community programs. 3 tables and 55 references