Arson is also referred to as fire-setting and it is the criminal act of deliberately setting fire to property. In the UK under the Criminal Damage Act, 1971, if an individual destroys or endangers the life of others by damaging property using fire, they will be charged with arson. Fires are categorized into two sectors. Fires which occur in occupied buildings are primary and those which occur in empty buildings are secondary (Hill et al, 1982). Arson typologies give an insight into what makes a person set fires and what the motivation behind it may be.
There is no clear answer as to why people intentionally start fires and arsonists come from different social classes and age groups, nevertheless most arsonists are white males between the ages…show more content… In addition Canter and Almond, (2002) suggested there are three types of people who commit arson for financial gain; 'profession arsonists' who are paid, business or property owners for insurance claims and business owners covering their losses. Arson within DSM-V is seen as an aspect of conduct disorder or pyromania which is an excessive fascination with setting fires. Pyromania is a rare condition and Jackson, (1994) argues that if fire-setting was just a fascination with fire, than arsonists would target areas which were not in use and would not cause harm to others and arson is also greatly connected to youth disorder (Home Office, 2000). However it must be emphasised that many acts of arson will draw from a mix of these different categories (Canter & Almond, 2002). Moreover classification systems based on motives are problematic due to the difficulties in identifying an accurate reason for arson as it is often carried out with more than one motive in mind or no motive at all (Bradford, 1982; Canter,…show more content… For example if one individual started a small fire using materials found at the scene and another individual started a fire but took fire-related materials to the scene and both fires got out of control and caused significant damage, the dangerousness of the two based on motive are different as one did not have the intention of causing wide-spread damage whereas the other did have the intention to cause as much damage as possible (MacKay et al, 2006). This does not imply that some forms of arson are less dangerous as others as fire is hard to control but some motives show more dangerousness in destruction and harm than others because setting fire in a group to an unoccupied building for excitement is not as dangerous compared to an individual who sets fire to an occupied building with the intention of causing harm to others. The majority of studies have indicated revenge as one of the major motives of arson and individuals who commit arson for revenge are viewed as the most dangerous compared to other motives, In addition individuals who commit arson due to pyromania are also seen as dangerous, however it is very rare (Prins, 1996) whereas individuals who commit arson