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Why People Commit Arson Arson in the workplace is no longer a rare occurrence. Deaths and property damage attributable to intentional fire setters have increased steadily year by year. At least, 1, 000 victims die annually due to fires started by arsonists. In some areas of the nation, one-half of all fire calls are now arson cases. The increase in intentional fires has paralleled the rise of other kinds of crimes across the country. Arson is no longer considered just a crime against property.
It is a criminal act which violates and robs victims of property, possessions, peace of mind and, sometimes, their lives. Police and fire personnel now rank arson as a major crime of violence, along with rape and murder. In many cases, arson is a form of homicide. (Waters, 1993). In the last year, 500, 000 arson fires were set. They killed more than 500 Americans and destroyed more than $ 3 billion of property. No section of the country has escaped the growing menace of intentionally set fires.
In Minnesota, alone, incidents of arson increased by 18 percent in 1993. One arson fire occurs every five hours in the state. Other areas of the nation report similar increases. Almost every state of the union has now established a hot line for reporting known and suspected cases of arson. (Porter, 1994).
We " re back again to build on the progress made in alerting the public of the fact that arson is a national problem that must be solved locally. The president's initiative is national in scope not regional. This effort represents the commitment by numerous federal agencies, governments at all levels, the private sector and the volunteer community to solve this problem. (Mistone, 1998). But why do people commit arson? Of all the illegal acts which result in death and destruction, arson is, perhaps, the most cowardly crime. After witnessing the charred remains of a man-made fire, it's hard for most of us to understand who or what kind of person would commit such acts.
Unfortunately, there is no single profile of an arsonist. People set fires for lots of reasons. Surprisingly, very few arson fires are caused by persons suffering from mental illness, pyromania or obsession with fire; although some fires are lit by marginal individuals who merely want to experience a sense of excitement or the thrill of exercising power. Many acts of arson are designed to destroy or hide evidence of some other wrongdoing (a crime to cover another crime). This is why the supervisor involved is often considered a prime suspect in any arson case. Closely related to these situations is the large number of intentional fires set solely to collect the insurance money.
Arsonists attempting to defraud insurance companies are frequently highly secretive and sophisticated criminals. Mention the word "arson" to a property adjuster and most likely he or she will immediately conjure up images of some crooked businessman torching his establishment in order to collect the insurance money. Year after year, the insurance industry spends millions of dollars investigating "arson for profit. " Insurance fraud through arson is one of the leading crimes tackled by industry special investigation units (SIUs), yet the industry appears to be cutting back on SIU expenditures. (Michelle, 1995). The reason may lie partly in perception and the realities of causation.
We all know there are just oodles of cases of insurance fraud; we just can't seem to get enough factual evidence to prove it in court. We know the claimant or employee is not always as badly injured as his or her physician and attorney would like us to believe -- it's all soft tissue, after all -- but we just can't seem to get concrete proof. We know the property claim gets inflated, along with the business interruption aspect of the loss, but we can't seem to quite put our finger on the amount. And we know that arson for profit is a major problem, but we have very few arrests and convictions.
The "experts" tell us that the U. S. insurance industry is losing $ 6 billion to insurance fraud, but only a handful of cases ever get prosecuted or even reported in the press -- and those are usually the big organized crime scams. (Michelle, 1995). But it is also stated that random vandalism also accounts for a substantial number of intentional fires each year. These conflagrations are frequently caused by teen-agers or younger children with schools as the most common target. Juveniles (defined as persons under 18 years of age) were responsible for half of all arson fires that occurred in 1997, " British said in the September 1999 issue. "Preliminary data for 1998 shows juveniles to be responsible for over 50 percent of arson fires. " (Ashen, 1999).
The number of arson attacks on schools has been increasing steadily in the last ten years, now accounting for 85 % of all school fires. The typical arsonist is most likely to be a pupil or ex-pupil, aged between 10 and 16. Disturbingly, the full extent of the problem is likely to be much greater as fire brigades are not always called to small fires. (Leland, 1997). In another Firehouse article in September 1999, correspondent David Liscio profiled "Juvenile Fire-Setters. " Liscio, a Massachusetts reporter and fireman, discusses the psychological factors surrounding fire-setting by children and teenagers, and finds some very disturbing facts.
In the town of Lynn, Mass. , he said, the fire department in 1998 responded to 40 fires set by juveniles, one of which turned fatal. The boy starting the fire under a stairway was five years old -- too young to be charged with the crime. (Ashen, 1999). "This year, " reports Liscio, "a 13 -year-old student at one of Lynn's public schools for troubled youth tried to ignite his teacher with a cigarette lighter. Last year, a three-year-old set fire to his mother's car and a side of their Lynn home. " To what does he attribute all this juvenile mischief? Liscio quotes Dr.
David Wilcox, a psychologist and director of the fire-setting assessment safety and treatment team at a Massachusetts medical facility. "Kids who are curious, but don't get any kind of intervention or safety education -- some of them will simply quit being curious. But others, where there might be stress in the family, or where there is a trauma, or where something is happening to them -- divorce, bad marriage between the parents, or some kind of physical or sexual abuse -- they are the kids who tend to continue playing with fire. " (Waters, 1993). Many such children exhibit poor peer interaction at school or are singled out as scapegoats, and may be setting fires as a way of expressing feelings. Many juvenile arson fires never get reported. For example, many fires set by a child at school may be extinguished upon discovery by a janitor. The arsonist is never identified or investigated, and any possible benefit of psychological treatment of that child is lost.
Statistics showed that, in one study, 38 percent of children between the first and eighth grade had played with fire at least once. Another study of boys aged five to nine showed that 45 percent had played with fire. Do such children generally grow up dangerous? Consider that Thomas Alva Edison, as a boy, was publicly paddled by his father in the Milan, Ohio, town square for having burned down the family barn while experimenting with fire. (Berry, 1984).
It is reported that he has encountered the occasional pathological fire-setter, a juvenile who may have started 75 to 100 fires. The article reports that when a child sets a fire in a hidden location (under a bed or in a closet, for example) this may indicate the child is in crisis and needs serious psychological help. If the property insurance industry is truly interested in reducing loss from arson, it needs to recognize arson's primary cause - juvenile fire setters - and take some sort of action through the community to help find and treat children who may be crying out for help. The industry's resources might better be spent in joining the fire service in a nationwide juvenile arson awareness program rather than wasting its energy emphasizing to adjusters how to profile arson for profit. It is also claimed that arson is the cause of 25 percent of church fires. The (FBI) Task Force reports that 235 people have been convicted of crimes connected to 173 church arson incidents since January of 1995.
This is nearly a 34 percent arrest rate, compared to the national average of 17 percent for other types of arson. Arson is the leading cause of deaths and injuries (445 fatalities in 1997) and accounts for the highest dollar loss in commercial fires. " Insurance fraud? Wrong. Most of those are attributable to juveniles, or, in the case of some residents, revenge resulting from domestic disputes.
Many commercial building fires are attributed to vagrants. (NFPA, 1995). Of course, it is also common for fires to be set merely for revenge or out of spite. In these situations, the culprit is often an insulted teenager, a frustrated customer, a disgruntled worker, an angry ex-employee or some other individual who feels mistreated by the organization. These are usually the easiest arson cases to solve because the guilty parties tend to be careless or indifferent to detection. As an example, we can mention Calvin Bruce Walker, 18, appearing in the Christchurch District Court. He was jailed for 18 months, with leave to apply for home detention, after he admitted a charge of arson and two counts of theft.
Judge Robert Kerr said Walker had fallen out with the arson victim over money and belongings she had taken from him. In revenge he went to her house and set fire to bedding, but the fire escalated, causing property damage of more than $ 7000, and $ 40, 000 damage to the house. (Michelle, 1995). There is another instance of arson revenge: Two young brothers died in an arson blaze sparked by a row over a stolen pushbike, a court was told yesterday. Stanley Hale, 22, bought the stolen cycle for pounds 5 - then flew into a rage when he discovered 10 -year-old Kraig Tickets had shopped him to the owner. He took his revenge with pal Roger Morgan by starting the blaze after branding the boy a "grass", Worcester Crown Court heard.
Kraig and brother Graham, 14, died when they were trapped in a bedroom at their home. This blaze was started by evil people who used accelerant to make the fire go and make rescue impossible. It was deliberately started as an act of revenge or punishment because Kraig told the owners of the bike where it was Morgan agreed to help Hale take his revenge. (Carroll, 1983). Regardless of motivation, arsonists are criminals and should receive punishment commensurate with their crimes. Consistent and stiff penalties serve as one deterrent to future fire-setting. The good news regarding the arson menace is that investigative techniques for deciphering various fire scenarios are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Using modern procedures, professionals can now pinpoint the exact source of a fire which covers hundreds of acres, differentiate between accidental and intentional fires and, often, identify the guilty party. As increasing numbers of fire setters are discovered and prosecuted, arson may become less profitable and less frequent. Arson is preventable. What is disturbing is that one out of every four fires is intentionally set.
That means that someone a fellow human being consciously decides for whatever reason to destroy a home, a car, a house of worship or a business. And in that moment they have attacked the lives, the livelihoods and the spirit of a community. (Midkiff, 1993). One reason that the price tag for direct property loss due to arson now runs into several million dollars annually is that arsonists tend to strike large structures. These include warehouses, office buildings, apartment complexes and schools. Managers and foremen in these kinds of environments should take the arson issue seriously. There's no reason for supervisors in these situations to lose sleep every night; but they should take prudent measures to protect their area of responsibility from arson to the greatest extent possible and to limit the losses should an act of arson actually take place.
The costs are too great to do otherwise. (Midkiff, 1993). The rising incidence of arson committed against factories, office and commercial buildings and other areas of work merit the supervisor's consideration when assessing the security of the workplace. The risk of arson and losses resulting from them may be minimized by taking prudent measures to secure the work place and its surroundings. Integrating safety factors in the design, construction and remodeling of work areas and promoting fire safety procedures can help minimize the devastation arson can cause. (Berry, 1984). There is another aspect of arson cases we need to discuss.
Today even though the media and politicians center on the unusual weapons, the main weapon of terrorist organizations around the world involves the method we know as oxidation, the velocity of which can vary between the fast oxidation of fire or the immediate oxidation of a detonation. The most common weapons used by terrorist organizations throughout the world have been firearms, fire or explosives. The form of oxidation used varies from organization to organization based on its level of sophistication. (Miller, 1997). For instance, Theodore Kaczynski sent memo bombs to the management of companies he believed characterized the problems with society.
Some will tell you that he wasn't a terrorist because he didn't belong to a terrorist organization, but he did terrorize this country in an attempt to change society to match his political ideals. (Ifsta, 1992). Further organizations, such as the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, commonly use fire in their attacks. Arson is one of their main weapons in their fight to oblige society to agree with them. (Gerstein, 1999). Local street gangs and illicit organizations also have used fire to control or threaten their victims and bring about fulfillment. Fire, sometimes referred to as the poor man's atom bomb, is an effectual terrorist weapon that can be deployed by anyone with a minimum amount of training. The materials needed to start a fire are often present at the scene of the target, and the outcome of the attack is unpredictable. (ERRI: web).
But, fortunately, such causes of human behavior are exceptional, and they become the center of the national security attention. Arson is a national problem, but it is fundamentally a local problem. This war, like most wars, must be won in the trenches. Local fire and police departments are well-trained and ready to mount heroic efforts. But when the doors of the fire station go up to respond, you already have lost the battle to prevent that fire from happening. In the end, the real responsibility for stopping arson lies with the community with students, teachers, business leaders, parents, the clergy and civic organizations.
Words: 2, 471. Bibliography: Ashen, M. H. , (1999) "Arsonist psychology detection. Journal of Psychological Sciences 22 (2) 148 - 157. Berry, T. (1984). Fire Litigation Handbook.
National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms web Access to response protocols and documents Carroll, G. (1983). Physical & Technical Aspects of Fire and Arson Investigation. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL. ERRI Counter-Terrorism Archive web Gerstein, D. (1999).
The conflict and protest in society. Megamol: 55 - 70. Ifsta Committee. (1992). Fire Cause Determination. 1 st Edition Paperback. Published by Intl Fire Service Training Assn.
Leland Kirk, John D. Dean. (1997). Kirk's Fire Investigation. 4 th Edition. Published by Prentice Hall. Michelle, C. (1995) "Arson - a complex problem." Fire and Arson Investigator 24 (2) 18 - 21. Midkiff, C.
M. , (1993) "Arson evidence container evaluation: III "New generation" KAPAK bags." Journal of Forensic Science 36 614 - 617. Miller, C. (1997). Profile of a terrorist. Terrorism. Arson. 1 (1): 34. Mistone, F. (1998).
Recent Arson Cases and Causes. Annals of the American Academy of Social Sciences (January): 16 - 18. NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) 921 - Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigation, 1995. Porter, Y. (1994) Accidental Arson. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL.
Waters, L. (1993) Analysis of Fire Setting. Journal of Forensic Sciences 38 (1) 165 - 183.
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