Arsonist motivations and methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Arsonist motivations and methods - Essay Example The person who commits arson or the arsonist has been categorized into types, degrees by statutes and socio-psychological analyses. This paper discusses this aspect as we try to shed some light to the arsonists and their motivations and methods. There is some degree of debate whether there is such a thing as a universal profile of an arsonist. Goldstein (1996) suggested a psychological profile as explained by Rider of the typical pathological fire setter in his review of literature on the subject: {An arsonist is] an individual of below average intelligence, with a history of poor academic achievement and significant school failure. He or she comes from a large family and a harsh and unstable home environment and displays a clearly troubled and inadequate social, marital, and employment history. (p. 25) In a research undertaken by Bradshaw and Huff (1985), about 52% of the arsonists surveyed burn properties out of revenge, 12% out of excitement while the rest cover those of crime concealment, for profit and those simply without reason. (p. 1-5) For this paper, we will discuss three of the most common arsonists, the arsonists who burn homes and building out of revenge, those who do for profit, out of excitement and those who burn building in order to conceal another crime. As previously explained, the most typical type of arsonist is the one who burns buildings and homes in order to get back at someone for some slight that may be real or imaginary. Somehow this is also related to arson entailing psychological disorder on the part of the arsonist such as schizophrenia which is characterized by excessive and irrational suspiciousness. Fire is used as a weapon or a defense in this case against what is perceived as a threat. According to Rossmo and Kim (2000), targets of revenge arsonist may include individual homes and vehicles, places and symbolic targets or government buildings depending of whether their motivation is to