Principles of Incendiary Crime Analysis - The Arson Pattern Recognition System (APRS) Approach to Arson Information Management

• NCJ Number: 92502
• Author(s): D J Icove; P E Keith
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 250 pages
• Grant Number(s): EMW-K 0812
• Sponsoring Agency: US Fire Admin (Federal Emergency Management Agency)
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Arson is the malicious and willful burning of property, sometimes for fraudulent purposes. On a per offense basis, it is the costliest and fastest rising crime in the United States with yearly property losses exceeding $2.5 billion and deaths amounting to 1,000.

Abstract

Reasons given for the nationally accelerating rate of arson include a present lack of uniform law enforcement strategies, low criminal prosecution success rates, and the general multifaceted nature of the offense. The paper explores strategies for incendiary crime abatement programs, including a comprehensive analysis of the offense. This analysis forms a model for combating arson-fraud crimes and is delineated into detection, prediction, and prevention phases. Computer-assisted techniques aid in this analysis and are documented by using actual case data with the Arson Pattern Recognition System (APRS). Tables, figures, equations, and appendixes including Ohio's Arson Control Act of 1976 are supplied. (Author abstract modified)