Offender Profile: Turning Motives into Strategy

Vandalism and arson resulting from boredom, classified above as ‘Youth disorder and nuisance’, can be tackled to a great extent by the various Youth Crime measures provided for in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and can be supplemented by a comprehensive education programme for schools to be devised by the new National Community Fire Safety Centre established within the Home Office to reduce fires and injuries.

In addition, best practice guidance is currently being developed for existing fire authorities on juvenile fire-setting schemes, which have been implemented in a number of areas.

Resolving and addressing arson that is Malicious, Psychological, or Criminal is more involved. Some of this arson will have been committed by juveniles and thus influenced by the Youth Crime measures outlined above. However, these other types of arsonists are more likely be influenced by increased deterrents and greater certainty of detection and prosecution. This means having the right arrangements in place to deter the would-be arsonist by target-hardening (thereby making it more difficult to secure entry to the premises) or by the use of effective, high profile arrangements for the detection and prosecution of arson (thereby making such behaviour non-profitable).

A recent research project has highlighted that certain targets such as schools and houses are associated with a certain type of arsonist and a certain type of motive. The work by Canter and Fritzon of Liverpool University is one of the more relevant pieces of research in attempting to aid the police in establishing a likely profile of the suspect in an arson investigation. The research shows, for example, that if the target of an arson attack was a domestic property, then the motive is more likely to be revenge and the suspect is more likely to be either male aged typically between 16-29 or a woman aged typically between 19-34. However males aged between 10 and 15 were more likely to target schools and be motivated by revenge. Another relevant finding is that most arson activity is carried out relatively close to where the arsonist lives (within 0.5 miles) unless the motive is revenge or financial gain in which case the arsonist seems prepared to travel any distance in order to achieve their objective.

Although much has been written on the reasons why people start fires, little reliable research has been carried out to quantify the proportion of incidents attributable to particular motives. For example, most research has been carried out by examining solved police cases or court case histories. These findings may display characteristics of a certain type of arsonist but very little is known about the arsonists and fire-setters who are not taken through this process.

The Arson Scoping Study recommended that research should be undertaken to quantify the proportion of deliberate fires attributable to a particular motive in order to target intervention policies effectively.  A research project on motivation of arsonists has now been commissioned by the Arson Control Forum - the project is due to be completed late Autumn 2001.