50% of bushfires deliberate and caused by school boys

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMar 25 2010

The problem

Arson is intentionally and maliciously setting fire. It has become one of the leading problems and costliest crimes in Australia today.

The Australian Institute of Criminology and Monash University researchers say that 50% of the bushfires are deliberate and caused by school boys. The occurrence of these fires coincides with the time school ends. Research has shown that these school boys are a prey to habit and grow up to be arsonists. These crimes are one of the most difficult to solve with almost all criminals getting away from the scene.

The police, firefighters and researchers alike are at their wit’s end trying to find the motivation for these crimes and methods to stop it.

AIC research manager Warwick Jones says Bushfire CRC funding for investigating arson has run out.

"I think one of the things is the people who determine the funding for fires are actually suppression agencies for the most part," he says. "They just regard bushfire arson outside their remit, essentially. They're much more enthusiastic about research on suppression activities. If we're going to look at stopping fires or stopping these uncontrolled ignitions, it's the arson end of the spectrum that's the controllable end."

Dr Janet Stanley of Monash University says, "It's quite strange in some ways why Australia hasn't put more funding into understanding what is probably the most costly crime in Australia," she said. "It has so many profound impacts on people. And if we could solve and reduce this considerably then a lot of the distress that's caused by bushfires would be lessened."

Experts put their heads together

A conference starting in Melbourne today is hoping to come up with ground-breaking plans to reduce bushfire arson. The team analyzing the situation and develop a plan of action to deal with the problem over the next 2 days will comprise of police, firefighters and researchers. This is a first conference of its kind in Australia.

Hurdles & way forward

Janet Stanley points out that the changes in the city profiles may be a responsible factor.

"Bushfire arson often occurs in the areas around the major cities where there is disadvantage in communities," she said. "And the spread particularly in Melbourne and some of the bigger metropolitan areas out into these bush areas certainly there's suggestions that the problem of arson may increase because of this reason."

Dr Rebekah Doley, a clinical and forensic psychologist at Bond University emphasizes on the need for better risk assessment processes among arsonists released from prison. Treatment programs she says should be in place in both jails and in the community.

"We have no treatment programs available for adult arsonists. So when we put people in prison we just cross our fingers and hope for the best in terms of rehabilitation." "Looking at the research, it appears that best practice would involve a group-based as well as an individual program." She said.

Dr Doley also brings to attention the hurdle of bring together arsonists for such treatment programs.

"So what we propose is to have developed an individual-based arson treatment program, that specifically addressed the fire setting behaviour, that could be run one-on-one within correctional facilities," she said. "We would like to extend that into the community as a community-based program run by practitioners dealing with parolees."