Contemporary crime investigators make use of modern psychology as a means of understanding the kind of person they should be looking for as a suspect. The ability to draw psychological profiles of suspects is of importance. The offense of arson is easier to solve if the detective uses of an arsonist profile.
Arson is far more than a mere schoolboy prank. It is a serious crime because it causes extensive and permanent damage to expensive assets. It also places lives at risk. Every year, billions are lost and hundreds of lives are ended in fires. It is therefore of both humanitarian and economic importance to understand why people start fires and how they can be prevented from doing so.
Statistically speaking, approximately half of all arsonists are juveniles, so a general profile is hard to draw. Age is not very useful in this respect, because there is no general age among offenders. It makes more sense to examine motive as a way of generating a more comprehensive profile.
Arsonists may have one of a number of motives. To begin with, some arsonists are genuinely juvenile and are merely after a thrill, or they wish to experience a sense of power. Such fire-setters do not identify a specific variety of target. They cause extensive damage and may also be accused of vandalism. Since they are so hard to predict, fires of this nature of difficult to prevent.
A further psychological motive may be revenge. Revenge arsonists are trying to attain justice through the burning of other people's property. This type is easier to investigate because the motive is far from random. Where revenge is the motive there is sometimes a pattern of several fires to look at.
On a more pragmatic level, the motive for a fire may not be psychological at all. Some criminals start fires in an attempt to eradicate evidence of a primary crime, such as murder or theft. An example would be a gang of robbers setting fire to their getaway vehicle. But setting such fires may also provide detectives with more evidence.
Fire may also make sense to some people financially. The classic example here is a fire set for insurance purposes. These fires typically involve high-value assets or struggling commercial enterprises. Where a fire has a substantial financial benefit for one of the parties involved, the suspicion exists that it was not random in its origin.
Lastly, there are those who set fires as an act of terrorism. This type is easy to identify because they usually claim responsibility shortly after the event. They may even leave identifying evidence at the scene deliberately. Their motive is to attract attention to themselves, and their choice of target is therefore strategic to their cause.
Arson is not an easy crime to investigate due to the destruction of evidence that is caused by the fire itself. The rate of successful prosecutions in cases of arson is very low. Law enforcement agencies need the cooperation of the public in tracking down and convicting arsonists. One of the key steps in this process is the compilation of an arsonist profile.
Arson is far more than a mere schoolboy prank. It is a serious crime because it causes extensive and permanent damage to expensive assets. It also places lives at risk. Every year, billions are lost and hundreds of lives are ended in fires. It is therefore of both humanitarian and economic importance to understand why people start fires and how they can be prevented from doing so.
Statistically speaking, approximately half of all arsonists are juveniles, so a general profile is hard to draw. Age is not very useful in this respect, because there is no general age among offenders. It makes more sense to examine motive as a way of generating a more comprehensive profile.
Arsonists may have one of a number of motives. To begin with, some arsonists are genuinely juvenile and are merely after a thrill, or they wish to experience a sense of power. Such fire-setters do not identify a specific variety of target. They cause extensive damage and may also be accused of vandalism. Since they are so hard to predict, fires of this nature of difficult to prevent.
A further psychological motive may be revenge. Revenge arsonists are trying to attain justice through the burning of other people's property. This type is easier to investigate because the motive is far from random. Where revenge is the motive there is sometimes a pattern of several fires to look at.
On a more pragmatic level, the motive for a fire may not be psychological at all. Some criminals start fires in an attempt to eradicate evidence of a primary crime, such as murder or theft. An example would be a gang of robbers setting fire to their getaway vehicle. But setting such fires may also provide detectives with more evidence.
Fire may also make sense to some people financially. The classic example here is a fire set for insurance purposes. These fires typically involve high-value assets or struggling commercial enterprises. Where a fire has a substantial financial benefit for one of the parties involved, the suspicion exists that it was not random in its origin.
Lastly, there are those who set fires as an act of terrorism. This type is easy to identify because they usually claim responsibility shortly after the event. They may even leave identifying evidence at the scene deliberately. Their motive is to attract attention to themselves, and their choice of target is therefore strategic to their cause.
Arson is not an easy crime to investigate due to the destruction of evidence that is caused by the fire itself. The rate of successful prosecutions in cases of arson is very low. Law enforcement agencies need the cooperation of the public in tracking down and convicting arsonists. One of the key steps in this process is the compilation of an arsonist profile.
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