What Motivates Arsonists?

With the recent discovery that the devastating California fires were started by arson, law enforcement agents and profilers are looking for the person who started the fires. What sort of person would intentionally set these fires, and why?

In "The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers" by Michael Newton, arson can be motivated by different things; vandalism, excitement, revenge, crime-concealment, profit, and extremist. The encyclopedia goes on to cite the example of John Orr, who was a serial arsonist who set fires around Los Angeles during the 1990s. One fire destroyed over sixty homes. Orr himself was an arson investigator with the Glendale Fire Department, and as the book notes, he "set fires most often after attending seminars with fellow arson investigators." (1) The book also notes that David Berkowitz, most famously known as "The Son of Sam" set fires in New York City and planned to set a stranger's apartment on fire because he thought he was "plotting against him". (1)

It's difficult to know what motivated the fires without knowing more about the potential arsonist.

Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI agent, wrote an article on MSNBC.com about the trickiness of an arson investigation. "The thing about arson is that it's difficult to investigate. In fires, most if not all physical evidence of arson is consumed in the fire itself," he writes. (2) Therefore, accurately profiling the one who set the California fires is a crucial step to finding the criminal. Van Zandt writes that finding "the epicenter of the fires" is essential to finding the arsonist, finding a pattern in the fires to see where everything started.

Psychologist Joel Dvoskin explains the firesetter's mentality in a WebMD article online. He stated that the most common motivation for setting fires is profit. "Buildings are often set on fire for insurance purposes," but that such a motivation "doesn't fit the pattern of what's happening in California." (3) Psychologist and PHD researcher Rebecca Doley explains the background of arsonists in an article on the Australian website ABC.net.au. In her research, she's found that firesetters have a family background with one or more absent parents, "or an extremely disciplinarian household, to the point of abuse". (4) Doley explains that arsonists aren't the same as pyromanias, who have a psychological compulsion to set fires, and usually have a sexual response to seeing the effect the fires have. "Arsonists don't have the same compulsion," she explains. "They understand what they are doing and the consequences of their actions yet they chose to do it anyway." (4)

An article on USA Today's website gave the latest figures on the California fires: about 500,000 acres burned, sixty-four injured and seven confirmed deaths. (5) "More than 1,700 homes were destroyed in the fires, among the worst in modern history", the article states. With such devastating numbers, a group of experts searching, and with the reward money now up to $285,000 according to the LA Times, (6) the arsonist should (hopefully) be brought to justice soon.

SOURCES:

1 - "The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers" by Michael Newton, Checkmark Books, 1999

2 - "The challenge of solving arson cases" By Clint Van Zandt, MSNBC. October 26, 2007 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21475495/)

3 - "Inside an Arsonist's Mind - Anger the Likely Motivation Behind California Fires" By Sid Kirchheimer.
WebMD Medical News (http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20031029/inside-arsonists-mind)

4 - "Looking into the mind of an arsonist" By Helena Webb, Abc.net.au. January 10, 2005.
(http://www.abc.net.au/southwestwa/stories/s1278242.htm)

5 - "Latest figures on southern California wildfires" By Bill Welch and Mike Carney, USA TODAY. October
26, 2007. (http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/10/latest-figures-.html)

6 - "Arson tip reward rises to $285,000" By Hector Becerra, Tony Barboza and Seema Mehta. Los Angeles Times, October 26, 2007
(http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arson27oct27,1,6978995.story?coll=la-headlines-california)