Backgrounds and characteristics of arsonists

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to gain more insight in the backgrounds and characteristics of arsonists. For this, the psychiatric, psychological, personal, and criminal backgrounds of all arsonists (n = 25), sentenced to forced treatment in the maximum security forensic hospital “De Kijvelanden”, were compared to the characteristics of a control group of patients (n = 50), incarcerated at the same institution for other severe crimes.

Apart from DSM-IV Axis I and Axis II disorders, family backgrounds, level of education, treatment history, intelligence (WAIS scores), and PCL-R scores were included in the comparisons. Furthermore, the apparent motives for the arson offences were explored. It was found that arsonists had more often received psychiatric treatment, prior to committing their index offence, and had a history of severe alcohol abuse more often in comparison to the controls. The arsonists turned out to be less likely to suffer from a major psychotic disorder. Both groups did not differ significantly on the other variables, among which the PCL-R total scores and factor scores. Exploratory analyses however, did suggest that arsonists may differentiate from non-arsonists on three items of the PCL-R, namely impulsivity (higher scores), superficial charm (lower scores), and juvenile delinquency (lower scores). Although the number of arsonists with a major psychotic disorder was relatively low (28%), delusional thinking of some form was judged to play a role in causing arson crimes in about half of the cases (52%).

Introduction

Arson is a crime with an enormous impact. Worldwide, it leads to major financial damage, serious injury, or even death (Geller, 1992). In the Netherlands, arson offenders can be forced to reside in a so-called ‘TBS hospital’; a specialized institution for forensic psychiatric care. Patients in these TBS hospitals receive intensive psychiatric care within a maximum security environment (van Marle, 2000).

According to Dutch Law, individuals can be sentenced by the court to forced hospitalization in a TBS hospital as a consequence of the severity of their crimes in combination with mental deficiencies or mental disorders, playing a causal role in the offending behavior. In addition, only crimes for which at least four years of imprisonment is imposed can lead to a TBS measure. The purpose of the TBS order is to protect society against dangerous offenders for whom a high risk of recidivism is assumed (Hildebrand & de Ruiter, 2004). A judge decides every one or two years about continuation or termination of the TBS sentence, based on the reports of caregivers about treatment progress and risk assessment (Nijman, de Kruyk, & van Nieuwenhuizen, 2004).

In the literature, various definitions of arson crimes can be found (Barnett and Spitzer, 1994, Geller, 1992). Whereas ‘arson’ is generally defined as deliberately setting fire to an object of any kind or person, ‘firesetting’ is considered to be a wider concept as it does neither imply a conscious intention of committing the crime (Barnett, Richter, & Renneberg, 1999), nor does it discriminate between background characteristics, such as the causes, effects, or motives (Bradford, 1982, Molnar et al., 1984, Ritchie and Huff, 1999). When fire is raised primarily as a result of difficulties to control impulses, the term ‘pyromania’ is used (Sakheim & Osborn, 1999). Pyromania refers to a pathological form of firesetting and is described in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Along with kleptomania and pathological gambling, it is categorized under “Impulse-Control Disorders Not Elsewhere Classified” (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).

Pyromaniacs are assumed to experience pleasure, satisfaction, or relief while committing their offences (Barnett and Spitzer, 1994, Geller, 1992). These offenders usually have a strong fascination with fire (Ritchie & Huff, 1999). However, despite of the fundamental differences in these three concepts, arson, firesetting, and pyromania are not always used distinctively (Plinsinga, Colin, & de Jong, 1997). As a consequence, in the presentation of our results, we have chosen to use the term arson uniformly, rather than firesetting or pyromania.

Apart from differences in terminology, a broad range of motives for arson can be found in the literature. The underlying driving forces vary from ‘innocent’ child's play to intentional murderous violence (Levin, 1976, Prins et al., 1985, White, 1996). Of the various motives for arson crimes, revenge is regarded to be the most important one by some authors (White, 1996). Although many earlier attempts have been made to categorize motives, none of these classifications seem without flaws (Barnett and Spitzer, 1994, Geller, 1992). However, six often mentioned motives for arson are: vandalism, excitement, revenge, firesetting as an act of terrorism, fires raised with financial gains as the objective, or fires raised as an act to conceal criminal behavior (Douglas, Ressler, Burgess, & Hartman, 1992). Apart from that, delusions are considered to be an important cause of many arsons (Ritchie & Huff, 1999). In this study, we will use a classification system that combines the six motives from Douglas et al. (1992) with the delusional motive, as proposed by Ritchie and Huff (1999).

As far as their background characteristics are concerned, arsonists often seem to have been raised in foster families or in adoptive homes (Blumberg, 1982). The majority of arsonists have not finished high school (Bradford, 1982) and they relatively often have received psychiatric treatment in childhood or during adolescence (Kolko, 1985). Indeed, arson is often associated with mental disorders (Barnett and Spitzer, 1994, Geller, 1992, Ritchie and Huff, 1999). Controlled studies, comparing arsonists with other delinquents, referred to forensic psychiatric hospitals, have yielded results suggesting that personality disorders prevail among arson offenders (Bradford, 1982). Apart from that, arsonists are frequently suffering from many psychiatric symptoms, such as psychosis, depression, and paranoia (Ritchie & Huff, 1999). As far as mental retardation in arsonists is concerned, inconsistent results have been reported (Geller, 1992). In general, arsonists are found to have lower abilities to control their impulses (Barnett & Spitzer, 1994). Arson offenders, consequently, show destructive behavior and excessive alcohol abuse (Räsänen et al., 1995, Räsänen et al., 1996). Finally, social skills of arson offenders are believed to be poor on average (Bradford, 1982).

A review of the literature justifies the conclusion that the number of studies on the backgrounds and characteristics of arsonists is limited (Barnett et al., 1999, Kocsis and Cooksey, 2002). Also, sample sizes in earlier research are rather small, as most investigations concern case reports (Dolan et al., 2002, Räsänen et al., 1995). Apart from that, many studies on this topic had methodological shortcomings (Barnett & Spitzer, 1994). In other words, there is a lack of knowledge of the background characteristics of arsonists and their motives for committing their crimes (Barnett et al., 1999, Blumberg, 1982, Molnar et al., 1984). Yet, the literature indicates that one in every four arsonists is a recidivist (Kolko, 1985). A recent study among Dutch TBS patients also suggested that arsonists were relatively likely to relapse into severe crimes, as compared to perpetrators of other types of offences (Philipse, 2005). The poor prognosis of mentally disordered arsonists may be due to the lack of information about arsonists (Harris & Rice, 1996), which may interfere with developing more effective therapeutic interventions for arsonists (Barnett et al., 1997, Rice and Harris, 1996).

Section snippets

Methods

The main goal of this study was to examine typical characteristics of arsonists. An additional aim was to provide insight into the motives of the arson criminal. The following hypotheses were tested on the basis of a sample of forensic psychiatric TBS patients residing at the hospital “De Kijvelanden”:

  • (1)

    compared to non-arson offenders, arsonists are more likely to have been raised in broken families;

  • (2)

    compared to non-arson offenders, arson offenders have a lower level of education;

  • (3)

    compared to

Results

In Table 2, all statistical comparisons between arsonists (n = 25) and non-arsonists (n = 50) are summarized. The first three hypotheses involved historical backgrounds of arsonists versus non-arsonists. More specifically, these hypotheses sought to investigate the environment in which arsonists were raised, their educational level, and whether or not patients had received earlier psychiatric treatment in the past. A significant result (α = .05) was only found concerning psychiatric treatment in the

Discussion

The main findings of this study can be summarized as follows. Male arson offenders in our sample had received more psychiatric treatment in the past, displayed a higher level of alcohol abuse, and were less likely to be diagnosed as suffering from a psychotic disorder. Additionally, arsonists discerned from non-arsonists on specific PCL-R item scores: impulsivity (higher scores), superficial charm (lower scores), and juvenile delinquency (lower scores).

Delusions were judged to be the most

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