Discuss about the Analysis and interpretation of fire scene evidence.
Intentional fire setting has devastating consequences both practically and financially. There is huge number of cases of intentional fire settings around the world in the past decade and the numbers are on a rise. Such fire settings have been the major cause of a large number of deaths and damage to properties due to such fire (Wilpert, van Horn & Eisenberg, 2017). Apart from such loss a large amount of financial loss is involved in such incidents. The person who suffers such disaster has to incur a huge amount of cost and start everything from scratch. Arsonists are the ones who have the trend to set intentional fires to different properties and buildings for different reasons. The most common reason being mental illness where the person accused is seen to be suffering from severe mental disease that leads him to commit such dangerous criminal acts without any idea about the consequences. There have been lots of instances of intentional fire setting where the offender is seen to have undergone severe trauma in his lifetime either in the form of any family events or any personal events that have disturbed his mental stability (Thomson et al. 2017). Intentional fire setting is referred to as arson and thus arson may be generally defined as the act of intentionally setting fire to his own property or some other property.
As mentioned earlier proper information regarding the characteristics of the fire setters is very much important for the different rehab centers as such information throws light on the specific areas of the person where there is a need for undertaking clinical assessment. The clinical assessment is needed to help the people recover from their state of illness. A lots of different studies can highlight on the fact that fire setting is an important part and has a much broader scope of general offending (Thomson et al. 2015). However offending history can show that the persons who were recorded for regular offending appear much similar to the property offenders. Most of the fire setters were characterized by one or more offending charges. However the ones who were booked for fire setting are seen to be much different from the persons with regular criminal histories. Fire setters are often seen to be much less reactive to any situations and are generally very cool and calm in nature than the other offenders. Even after setting the fire their behavior shows least change and thus they are termed to be the most dangerous people of the society.
There has been least number of researches carried out that concentrates on the childhood or adulthood of the fire setters. This is one of the most important areas that have been neglected by most of the researchers on the following case (Thomson et al. 2015). Childhood is one of the most important pillars in the life of a person and perhaps the most crucial time for the development of a person into a proper and responsible human being. A person learns all the basic things and chooses the right path to success from childhood. However there are persons who suffer from some serious disabilities like problematic childhood or some serious physical or mental disability. Such children have a tendency tto get isolated from the rest of the world and believe that he is inferior from all the others. This makes him much more aggressive and dangerous in nature. If these problems are not checked within the time being it can be the cause of serious disaster.
In terms of specific set of disorders fire setting is not specifically identified as a core symptom of Reactive Attachment Disorder that occurs generally from the childhood and thus once again it needs to be controlled from the particular time to limit all the possibilities of its further occurrence within the person (Pooley & Ferguson, 2017).
There is a striking difference between fire setting and fire setters who suffer from pyromania. The following study is based more on determining the arson of pyromaniacs. Most of the arsonists do not meet the diagnostic criterion for pyromania. Thus to define arson in the most broadest scope fire setting can be defined as the behavior caused by both accidental or intentional setting of fire in different public or one’s own property. According to, Peters & Freeman (2016) setting fires on one’s own wish is not always a symptom of underlying psychiatric philosophy and nor it can be defined as a criminal act rather it can be said to a disorder of highest ability that differentiates a common person from a person with mental instability. There are cases with pathological fire setting which is always a case of intentional fire setting. This can occur due to a number of different psychiatric disorders and must be controlled in the childhood itself or else may lead to large scale disaster in the future.
Arson can be said to be a subtype of fire setting. It is certainly a criminal act of willfully and maliciously setting fire to a building, structure or any other property. However the law defines every fire to be accidental. The law also fails to identify the motive or psychiatric pathology. The following can be referred to as the most generalized crime and the prosecution must provide enough evidences to prove that the accused intentionally started the fire. The criminal intent of the accused must be proved before starting any criminal procedures against him. If the accused is proved to have committed the crime the law will take its own course. Generally the burning of an occupied structure like a residential area or a building invites more severe punishment compared to that of an uninhabited area. There are a number of metrics to measure the risks associated and the crime committed by the accused (Ó Ciardha et al. 2015). This is generally measured by the amount of damage, number of lives lost, the future implications of the loss and many other complex measurements. Most of the persons who commit arson are seen to be male however in recent years the number of female arsonist has seen a steady rise. Most of the people who are accused of committing the crime are seen to be suffering from serious mental illness and other forms of mental instability. Such persons must be kept in rehabilitation and treated in a proper way to avoid the occurrence of such crimes (Hoerold & Tranah, 2014). There are also cases where it is seen that a person has intentionally set fire to a property just because he wanted to see the same trauma in the other person which he may have suffered in the past. These are the cases of extreme mental instability and the actions of such persons needs to be controlled proactively to avoid other major disasters. Thus in most of the cases arson symptoms occur in the childhood stage. It is important for the parents to control such activities of a child at an early stage by a proper medication process.
There are different factors that lead to the setting of the fires. A number of variables need to be considered while assessing on why a person set fires to the different properties. Some of the main factors include;
Different experiments with fire are a common part of growing up while one develops in the childhood. Such behavior of conducting different experiments gets over after a certain period of time. But the actual problem begins if the person fails to grow out of that particular behavior. A number of different factors are involved that lead people to cross the line between play and experimentation to actually setting fire to a building or a property. The children whose development is delayed in the early years of childhood have a problem in gathering judgment and common sense (Almirall & Furton, 2016). There are people to whom even the simplest of tasks seems to be difficult. This happens due to the late maturity of these individuals and not for any other common reasons. The following persons are said to have developmental disability. There are cases where some persons are said to have no understanding of the activities which they perform. They seem to perform all the activities without any simple idea or prediction of the consequences of such behaviors. The following behavior must be checked in the childhood itself as it may turn a child to a dangerous adult and a threat to the entire human community.
In most of the cases the persons who sets fire to the building or property seems to feel powerless and believe that the only source of power lies in setting fire to the property or buildings or any other forms of human habitation. Power and willingness to gain power can make one more determined to commit such criminal and dangerous activities. It is the person himself and no one else who can bring his behavior under control. This is only possible if he feels to do so. The people who think too much and have the tendency to view each and everything in an intellectual way seems to develop such complex behavior more easily than the ones with casual behaviors. A number of different researches have pointed out the fact that the ones who have lost one or both of their parents at a early stage of childhood and was neglected by the other parent or people will be most likely to develop such a behavior and will have problem with alcohol and will also be prone to substance abuse. The actions of such persons will also be unjustified and will be uncontrollable (Barnoux, Gannon & Ó Ciardha, 2015).
Another interesting study has shown that most fires occur generally on weekends like Friday and Saturday and fires are most likely set by the person either in their own home, neighbor’s home or any other place with heavy footfall and also in large forests as forest fires are mostly much more destructive and have the most impact on both human and animal life.
The history of humankind has been largely influenced by the different constructive as well as destructive properties of fire. There is no exception in the legal system. As mentioned earlier the prosecutor needs to prove the crime of the accused in the court before terming the person as the fire setter. In such cases the court largely depends on the opinions of the mental health experts. These persons are the ones who have the final say in such cases. They examine the accused thoroughly, whether he is really ill or is predicting to be ill, whether he has a long history of mental illness, whether he has the idea of the consequences of the activities committed by him and many such different cases. After the examination the medical expert submits a proper report before the court which is analyzed by the judge. The judgment is mostly dependent on the report of the expert. The following review has provided a proper idea on the Arson and fire setting cases that happens around the world. The different factors, causes and most importantly the stage of childhood has been an important addition to the review. The review has also thrown light on the type of offenders who commits the crime and the nature and characteristics of their behavior has also been explained. The nature of the arsonists is a serious threat to the society and such activities must be put under control by the concerned people. Society must also play an important role to improve the scenario and stand by those who seriously suffer from mental disorders. It is the task of the society tto makes them normal and brings them back to a proper situation.
References
Alexander, R. T., Chester, V., Green, F. N., Gunaratna, I., & Hoare, S. (2015). Arson or fire setting in offenders with intellectual disability: clinical characteristics, forensic histories, and treatment outcomes. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 40(2), 189-197.
Alleyne, E., Gannon, T. A., Mozova, K., Page, T. E., & Ó Ciardha, C. (2016). Female fire-setters: gender-associated psychological and psychopathological features. Psychiatry, 79(4), 364-378.
Almirall, J. R., & Furton, K. G. (Eds.). (2016). Analysis and interpretation of fire scene evidence. CRC Press.
Barnoux, M., Gannon, T. A., & Ó Ciardha, C. (2015). A descriptive model of the offence chain for imprisoned adult male firesetters (descriptive model of adult male firesetting). Legal and Criminological Psychology, 20(1), 48-67.
Barrowcliffe, E. R., & Gannon, T. A. (2015). The characteristics of un-apprehended firesetters living in the UK community. Psychology, Crime & Law, 21(9), 836-853.
Dalhuisen, L., Koenraadt, F., & Liem, M. (2017). Subtypes of firesetters. Criminal behaviour and mental health, 27(1), 59-75.
Ducat, L., McEwan, T., & Ogloff, J. R. (2017). A comparison of psychopathology and reoffending in female and male convicted firesetters. Law and human behavior, 41(6), 588.
Fritzon, K., & Miller, S. (2015). 3 Female firesetters. The Psychology of Arson: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Managing Deliberate Firesetters, 11.
Gannon, T. A. (2015). 1 Explanations of firesetting. The Psychology of Arson: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Managing Deliberate Firesetters, 13.
Hoerold, D., & Tranah, T. (2014). Correlates of adolescent fire setting: examining the role of fire interest, fire-related attentional bias, impulsivity, empathy and callous–unemotional traits. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 25(4), 411-431.
Ó Ciardha, C., Barnoux, M. F., Alleyne, E. K., Tyler, N., Mozova, K., & Gannon, T. A. (2015). Multiple factors in the assessment of firesetters’ fire interest and attitudes. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 20(1), 37-47.
Peters, B., & Freeman, B. (2016). Juvenile firesetting. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics, 25(1), 99-106.
Pooley, K., & Ferguson, C. E. (2017). Using environmental criminology theories to compare ‘youth misuse of fire’across age groups in New South Wales. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 50(1), 100-122.
Thomson, A., Tiihonen, J., Miettunen, J., Sailas, E., Virkkunen, M., & Lindberg, N. (2015). Psychopathic traits among a consecutive sample of Finnish pretrial fire-setting offenders. BMC psychiatry, 15(1), 44.
Thomson, A., Tiihonen, J., Miettunen, J., Virkkunen, M., & Lindberg, N. (2017). Fire-setting performed in adolescence or early adulthood predicts schizophrenia: a register-based follow-up study of pre-trial offenders. Nordic journal of psychiatry, 71(2), 96-101.
Wilpert, J., van Horn, J., & Eisenberg, M. (2017). Arsonists and violent offenders compared: two peas in a pod?. International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 61(12), 1354-1368.
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