A self-consistent RPA method is presented for N-particle Fermi systems with two- and three-body forces. The RPA equations for the generalised 'particle-hole' and 'particle-particle' problem, respectively, are derived by minimising the mean excitation energies defined analogously to mean single-particle energies. This corresponds to the equation-of-motion method. For the generalised 'one-particle/two-particle-one-hole problem' the Green-function scheme is used in order to establish a connection between two possible ways of treating the problem. It is shown that the RPA Hamiltonians have almost the same structure as in the case of pure two-body forces, and that Rowe's general RPA equations are contained as a special case of the treatment.