sometimes set fires.
Vandalism. Schools are often the target here.
Profit. Insurance fraud is the most common objective in this category.
Crime Concealment. Criminals sometimes turn to arson to burn away evidence that could tie them to a crime.
Experts also argue that relief from psychological pressure is a motivator for many arsonists, either from sexual or non-sexual stressors such as family conflict. This analysis will attempt to present the profile or characteristics of the juvenile and adolescent arsonist in an effort to bring more understanding to this complex behavior and perhaps a character profile that may be used for effective early intervention.
Arson is an expensive and dangerous crime. The United States Fire Administration (USFA, 1997, 1) released the following statistics on arson for 1994-1996:
Arson is the number one cause of all fires (approx. 550,000 in 1994), and the second leading cause of residential fire deaths. Five hundred sixty five fire deaths and 3,440 fire injuries in 1994 were attributable to arson. The dollar loss from arson fires was estimated at $3.6 billion for 1994. According to insurance industry reports, the average property loss from incendiary and suspicious fires in 1996 increased 24 percent from the year 1995 to $27,810.
The literature also demonstrates that firefighter injuries are higher at arson fires than fires that are accidental in nature. Alarmingly, the majority of arrests for arson are among the juvenile population, and, while statistics show that juvenile crime rates continue to decline for many violent crimes, this is not the case when it comes to the level of juvenile arson being committed according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Report from 1995:
Juveniles account for the majority of arson arrests. Fifty-two percent of arson arrests include children under the age of eighteen. The incidence of juvenile arson continues to i...