[Arson and pyromania, update 2015]. / Incendiaires et pyromanes.

While the fire constitutes a threat and provokes avoidance by the entire animal world, its control as lighting and maintenance is inseparable from the history of humankind. For 1% of the population that use is turned to harm, repeatedly and without objective reason, responding to the historical definition of pyromania. The profile of arsonists does not appear to be different from that of the general criminal population: alcohol abuse, nicotine, marijuana and antisocial personality do not make fire setters a special case. However positive fire experience lived in childhood, emotional avoidance and expertise in fire settings' control seems to be specific, as recidivism risk below that of the general criminal population.

Mentally Disordered Firesetters: An Examination of Risk Factors.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we examined the risk-related characteristics of mentally disordered patients who had either been (1) involved in a firesetting incident or (2) involved in a nonfiresetting comparison incident while under the care of the National Health Service (NHS). METHOD: A total of 132 participants were recruited from an NHS Care Group in England (66 mentally disordered firesetters, 66 mentally disordered comparisons). Logistic regression was used to model the ability of static, dynamic, and incident-related factors in predicting whether a patient had set a fire (including gender-sensitive subanalyses), whether a patient firesetter was male or female, and a one-time or repeat firesetter. RESULTS: We identified a cluster of variables that predicted firesetting status. We also identified key factors that predicted female patient firesetters relative to female patient controls who engaged in other undesirable behaviors and male patient firesetters. A cluster of variables predictive of repeat versus one-time firesetting also emerged. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are discussed in relation to further development of risk-related firesetting theory.

Survey of primary school educators regarding burn-risk behaviors and fire-safety education.

OBJECTIVE: To assess primary school educator knowledge and opinions regarding fire-setting behaviors and burn-injury prevention education. DESIGN AND SETTING: A written survey, consisting of 24 questions, was distributed to 8 primary schools. The survey was designed by our burn center personnel to assess basic knowledge and opinions. It was distributed to teachers by the school principals and completed surveys were collected by our staff. RESULTS: Twenty percent of elementary school educators surveyed had experience teaching burned children (mean age: 7+/-3; range: 2-17); 8% had experience with children that were injured due to fire-play. Fire experimentation begins at 6.1+/-2 years of age (range: 2-13). Educators believe students can benefit from a fire prevention curriculum beginning at 7.3+/-1.8 years (range: 5-12). The average time requested for an elementary school burn-injury prevention program was 4+/-3h. Kindergarten teachers requested 8h and fifth grade teachers asked for 3.3h. Over 97% of elementary school teachers agree that discussions about the medical and social consequences of burns will reduce fire-play behavior in children. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly all primary school educators surveyed agreed that burn injuries and attempting to curb fire-play are important societal issues. There was wide agreement that including a description of the medical and social consequences of burns in a preventive curriculum would enhance its efficacy. The younger students are, the more time teachers require to adequately convey fire safety instruction.

A comparative study of the behavioral, personality, and fire history characteristics of residential and outpatient adolescents (ages 12-17) with firesetting behaviors.

Juvenile firesetting behavior has received relatively little research attention and previous attempts to systematically classify this heterogeneous population of children has been only partially successful. Currently there is no literature available that defines treatment and intervention needs of adolescents in residential treatment with problematic firesetting behavior and whether these needs differ from their outpatient cohorts. Data were gathered from a residential (N=17) and outpatient (N=30) sample detailing firesetting history, behavioral functioning, aggression, and personality traits associated with behavioral difficulties. Study subjects were asked to complete the Youth Self Report (Achenbach), Aggression Questionnaire, and Jesness Inventory and to participate in a structured firesetting history interview by project directors. Parents/guardians were asked to complete a Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach). Adolescents in residential care were significantly more likely to come from a single-parent home, display increased delinquent behaviors, greater depressive symptoms, and report significantly more aggressive thoughts and attitudes than those in outpatient settings. Few differences were found on personality characteristics associated with behavior and conduct problems and few differences were found relative to fire history and firesetting characteristics. Implications for treatment and intervention within a residential setting are discussed as well as factors possibly associated with delaying and/or avoiding initial residential placement.

Arson: an unforeseen sequela of deinstitutionalization.

Did the shift from institutional to community-based services brought about by deinstitutionalization affect the nature or function of pathological fire setting? The author studied admissions to a state hospital that were precipitated by arson. During a 200-day period, 14 patients accounted for 16 admissions and 17 fires. The data indicate that fires are set by consumers of public sector mental health services to communicate a wish or a need for a change in location of those services. Communicative arson has caused property damage, personal injury, and death and has resulted in a backlash against community alternatives for psychiatric treatment.

Arson in review. From profit to pathology.

Arson is a crime committed by thousands of people throughout our nation for nearly every reason, justification or excuse known to mankind ... Arson is one of the easiest crimes to commit but the hardest to prevent or prove ... Arson is a crime which involves little skill, as the weapon used is legally carried and too readily available ... Unlike many other covert criminal activities, the impact of increased major arsons has a direct visible effect on the lives of the average citizen. Insurance premiums are raised, property is destroyed, people are killed or maimed, and the quality of life in the area affected by arson is diminished considerably. These statements, taken from US Senate hearings on arson in the late 1970s, are as true and as troubling today as they were over a decade ago. Many who set fires need mental health services of some kind, a fact alluded to even in popular literature. Dick Francis, a well-known author of British mysteries, writes, "There are people in this world who cause trouble because it makes them feel important. They're ineffectual, eh? in their lives. So they burn things ..." But nobody wants these arsonists in their midst. Psychiatric facilities do not want them so they end up in prison: Yet another case has been reported of a mentally disordered person being sent to prison because there is no other institution willing to receive her ... a severely mentally disordered woman aged 22 [was sentenced] to life imprisonment for arson ... in default of other appropriate facilities ... to protect the public. And general hospital emergency rooms cannot find anyplace to send them: "The hardest patients to sell are the repeaters with bad reputations, the firesetters and those who are potentially violent." Any arson episode is an act the magnitude of which the perpetrator cannot predict accurately. Once set, the fire is no longer responsive to the desires or dictates of the firesetter. To address the problem of arson in our times, arson investigators for law enforcement agencies and for insurance companies, fire chiefs, and mental health professionals must develop a joint commitment to public education, cooperative plans for prevention and intervention, and a shared research agenda.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Psychiatric aspects of arsonists.

Arson is a major source of property damage, injury and death in the United States. Many people who commit arson have extensive psychiatric histories and symptoms at the time of their fire-setting. However, traditionally the law enforcement community and the mental health community have not shared information about the characteristics of people who set fires. This study examined mental health records and/or prison files from 283 arsonists. 90% of arsonists had recorded mental health histories, and of those 36% had the major mental illness of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. 64% were abusing alcohol or drugs at the time of their firesetting. Pyromania was only diagnosed in three of the 283 cases. Different motives for setting fires are discussed; many patients were both angry and delusional. A survey instrument, which captures both psychiatric and legal data, is included. Suggestions are made for gathering future "profiling" information. A matrix approach to coding diagnosis and behavior is presented.

Children who set fires: some background and behavioral characteristics.

Background and behavior of 90 children identified as fire-setters in a population of 544 referred for residential treatment is presented. None exhibited fire-setting behavior while in residential treatment, but questions are raised about alternative treatments achieving the same result. A current bibliography is provided.

Differences in the medical and legal viewpoint illustrated by R v Hardie [1984].

The case of R. v Hardie [1984] creates an important precedent and is cited in the current edition of Archbold (1989). It is argued that the pharmacological issues discussed therein contain errors that seem to go to the heart of the judgment, which illustrates the differences between the legal and scientific viewpoint.

Motiveless firesetting: implicating partial limbic seizure kindling by revived memories of fires in "Limbic Psychotic Trigger Reaction".

23 unselected juvenile firesetters (M age 12.0 yr.) consisted of seven with schizophrenia, three with organic mental disorder, six with posttraumatic stress disorder, two with severe mental retardation, and two with conduct disorders. Three previously nondestructive boys (M age 11.0 yr.), all of them loners, did not fit such traditional diagnoses. Their fleeting (c. 20 min.) symptoms included flat affect, autonomic arousal, and delusions or hallucinations. It appeared that their motiveless, unplanned acts were each preceded by a chance encounter with an individualized stimulus which revived the three boys' repeatedly ruminated memories of intermittently experienced merely moderate stresses associated with fire, smoke, or matches. Such a sequence of events is characteristic of seizure kindling. One boy's abnormal EEG was congruent with seizures in the temporal lobe area, which includes the amygdala, i.e., that part of the limbic system particularly susceptible to seizure kindling. The three boys' consistent symptomatology was very similar to that reported for 17 men with bizarre homicidal acts implicating a kindled partial seizure called "Limbic Psychotic Trigger Reaction." In primates, too, similar partial nonconvulsive "behavioral seizures" with psychosis-like symptoms can be elicited through experiential kindling.

An unusual case of random fire-setting behavior associated with lacunar stroke.

A case of a 47-year-old man with a sudden onset of a bizarre and random fire-setting behavior is reported. The man, who had been arrested on felony arson charges, complained of difficulties concentrating and of recent memory impairment. Axial T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging showed a low intensity lacunar lesion in the genu and anterior limb of the left internal capsule. A neuropsychological test battery revealed lower than normal scores for executive functions, attention and memory, consistent with frontal lobe dysfunction. The recent onset of fire-setting behavior and the chronic nature of the lacunar lesion, together with an unremarkable performance on tests measuring executive functions two years prior, suggested a causal relationship between this organic brain lesion and the fire-setting behavior. The present case describes a rare and as yet unreported association between random impulse-driven fire-setting behavior and damage to the left internal capsule and suggests a disconnection of frontal lobe structures as a possible pathogenic mechanism.

Profile of female firesetters. Implications for treatment.

We studied 28 female arsonists and 28 female controls admitted to Holloway Prison over four months to examine the psychological and situational antecedents to firesetting so that the behaviour could be targeted for treatment. Over 92% of the arson group had received a psychiatric diagnosis. Both groups had similarly high rates of early deprivation and abuse. None of the female arsonists had set a fire for financial gain. There was no evidence of sexual arousal being associated with firesetting; only two women described their firesetting in terms that suggest a level of compulsion--one of these was alcoholic, the other was diagnosed as severely personality disordered. Several behavioural and psychological antecedents to offending were identified which could be targeted for treatment: low self-esteem, depression, limited communication skills, and deficits in anger management. The relapse prevention model is suggested as a possible intervention for recidivistic arsonists.

Who repeats? A follow-up study of state hospital patients' firesetting behavior.

The authors report on a population of psychiatric patients who were studied over a 6.75 year period to determine the occurrences of firesetting behavior noted in their psychiatric inpatient records. Two groups of 50 patients each were drawn from an earlier study and were matched by sex, age, and diagnoses. One group of patients had prior firesetting behavior; the other did not. Firesetting behavior was found not only in patients originally identified as having previously engaged in this behavior, but also in those with no documented history of this act prior to the period of the study. Patients having firesetting behavior in their past psychiatric record set more actual fires. Total number of episodes of firesetting behavior, however, was not significantly different between the two groups. Results are discussed in terms of the communicative function of firesetting and the dilemma of clinical prediction.

A study of firesetters in the south-west of Ireland.

A survey of 54 firesetters who had been in hospital or prison was conducted. The results confirmed earlier findings on several aspects, such as male predominance, unstable childhood and proclivity to self-injurious behaviour. Revenge emerged as the commonest motive overall and an association with alcohol was found. Only 11% of the fire-raising episodes, whether among hospital or prison groups, were truly trivial. Arsonists in prison and hospital had many features in common and generally were quite psychologically disturbed, which contrasted with those who set fires for profit. A poor outcome was found, with continuing self-harm and a high suicide rate. Our findings suggest that arson recidivism arises in at least 35% of arsonists.

Epilepsy and arson.

A man temporarily developed an organic personality change, psychosis and epilepsy after a frontal lobe operation for a subarachnoid haemorrhage. While affected, he set fire to his house. The arson is thought to have been a direct result of a seizure. The case and its legal management are discussed.