NCJ Number
165094
Journal
Journal of Adolescence Volume: 18 Issue: 5 Dated: (October 1995) Pages: 619-623
Date Published
1995
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This British study explored, using a self-report methodology, explanations of firesetting in a group of adolescent males and females.
Abstract
A secondary aim of this study was to look at situational differences at the time of the firesetting incident. Seventeen young people took part in the study. This included three females and 14 males, all of whom were residents of the Youth Treatment Service, which provides secure accommodation for some of the most disturbed and difficult adolescents in the United Kingdom. All of the participants were interviewed by the same researchers. The reporting format was a semi-structured interview that focused, for each incidence of firesetting, on the antecedents to the firesetting, the firesetting itself, and the eventual outcome. Relevant information from the interviews was extracted by using qualitative data analysis techniques from Grounded Theory. The use of qualitative analysis revealed six different self-reported reasons for firesetting among juveniles. Of the reasons given by the juveniles for setting fire, two correspond with the literature: revenge and crime concealment. Those who set fires in response to peer group pressure apparently correspond with group firesetters who set fires as vandalism. The young women who set fires as a form of self-injurious behavior were unlike other female arsonists recorded. The young man fascinated by fire was perhaps most similar to those individuals who would be diagnosed as pyromaniac. The juveniles who denied their firesetting activities are not similar to any previously reported group. 16 references