Watt, Bruce D.

Doley, Rebekah M.

Ferguson, Claire

English

This project will examine the use of arson in homicide cases in Australia since 1990. It will involve a partnership between ACART and the Australian Institute of Criminology’s National Homicide Monitoring Program in order to examine the link between crime scene indicators, firesetter characteristics and the Multi- rajectory Theory of Adult Firesetting treatment program. The project has relevance to treatment providers, investigators and researchers by linking all three in a comprehensive assessment of arson associated fires and the offenders who perpetrate them.Multidimensional statistical analysis will be used to identify themes and logistic regression will be employed to identify relevant predictor variables. Results will be of benefit to investigators and mental health professionals, as well as informing prevention efforts

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Bond UniversityResearch RepositoryThe Use of Fire in Australian Homicide Cases: A Link to MTTAF and the Action SystemsFrameworkWatt, Bruce D.; Doley, Rebekah M.; Ferguson, ClairePublished: 01/01/2012Document Version:Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLink to publication in Bond University research repository.Recommended citation(APA):Watt, B. D., Doley, R. M., & Ferguson, C. (2012). The Use of Fire in Australian Homicide Cases: A Link toMTTAF and the Action Systems Framework. Poster session presented at Research Week 2012, Gold Coast,Australia.General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.For more information, or if you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact the Bond University research repositorycoordinator.Download date: 10 May 2019Introduction: •An expansion of ACART’s work examining associations between firesetting and homicide. •Area has received scant attention in the published empirical literature despite data that it causes 100 deaths per annum in England and Wales and 500 in the USA (Arson Prevention Bureau, 2003; Prestemon and Butry 2005). The findings will be set to the current best practice model explaining deliberate firesetting (M-TTAF).•Despite arson incidents having grown by almost 2000% in the last 30 years, very little study of arsonists •A major challenge is a lack of consistency in recording, monitoring or treating deliberate fire-setters in different states and territories. The result has been a call to action to improve arson prevention (Stanley & Kestin, 2010).•Bushfire CRC research analysing more than 280,000 fires in Australia (Bryant 2008) found 60 percent of fires have a known cause and around half are maliciously lit.•Arson costs the Australian community $1.6 Billion annually (Muller, 2009), although exact figures are difficult to determine.•The aims of this project are original in that they seek to inform both investigations as well as treatment.Expected Outcomes: MTTAF Treatment ModelFire Scene CharacteristicsArsonist Personal Characteristics•Will link analyses of scene behaviours to offender characteristics, to the treatment model. •Will facilitate further testing of Fritzon and Canter’s (1998) action systems model to determine its applicability to homicides.•Findings will inform ACART treatment manual•May also be helpful to fire investigators and law enforcement personnel. •Findings will facilitate the ability to carry out detailed assessments of the types of firesetters who eventually set fires involving a loss of life so that these risk factors for escalation may be widely known and these types of fires better investigated and prevented. Research Questions:•How often was firesetting used in homicides?•Why was the firesetting carried out (M-TTAF/Action Systems Model)? •Do arson-homicides with various motives involve different elements of firesetting and present differently?•Do arson-homicides with various motives involve different offenders with different characteristics and treatment needs? •How is this crime type reflected in the M-TTAF model of deliberate firesetting?References: Arson Prevention Bureau (APB) 2003. Detecting and convicting the arsonist: lessons from the United States. APB. http://www.arsonpreventionbureau.org.uk/publications/files/lessons%20from%20the%20United%20States.pdfBryant, C. (2008). Deliberately Lit Vegetation Fires in Australia. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, no. 350. http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi2/tandi350.htmlBureau of Transport Economics (BTE), 2001. Economic Costs of Natural Disasters in Australia. Report 103. BTE. http://www.btre.gov.au/infoaspx.?ResourceId=199&NodeId=58Canter, D., and Fritzon, K. (1998). Differentiating arsonists: A model of firesetting actions and characteristics. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 3, 73-96. Fritzon, K., and Brun, A. (2005). Beyond Columbine: A faceted model of school associated homicide. Psychology Crime and the Law, 11, 53-71. Fritzon, K, Canter, D., and Wilton, Z. (2001). The application of an action systems model to destructive behaviour: The examples of arson and terrorism. Behavioural Sciences and the Law, 19, 657-690. Muller, D. (2009). Using Crime Prevention to Reduce Deliberate Bushfires in Australia. Research and Public Policy Series, no. 98. http://www.aic.gov.au/documents/B/9/0/%7BB908CCCA-FF36-4C42-B099-A0F45F62D8F6%7Drpp98.pdfApproach/Methods: •Variables will be extrapolated from the empirical literature explaining deliberate firesetting. •Issues specific to homicide offenders will be considered and a proposed model of arson-related homicide will be developed and tested. •Theore t ica l underp innings of the classification system will be used to discriminate types of arson (validated in: Canter & Fritzon, 1998; Fritzon, Canter & Wilton, 2001; Fritzon & Brun, 2005; Miller & Fritzon, 2007; Santilla, Hakkanen & Fritzon, 2003; Fritzon, Lewis & Doley, 2011. •The findings will be set in the context of the current multi-variate model of deliberate firesetting, M-TTAF (Gannon, O’Ciardha, & Doley, 2012).  •The M-TTAF model comprises two tiers: Tier 1, seeks to integrate current theory and research knowledge into a broad theory of firesetting; and Tier 2, seeks to summarize discrete offender profiles, describing ways in which firesetters may arrive at firesetting.•Multidimensional statistical analysis will be used to identify themes and logistic regression will be employed to identify relevant predictor variables.Questions or Comments? Contact: Dr. Claire Ferguson at clfergus@bond.edu.auThe use of fire in Australian homicide cases: a link to M-TTAF and the action systems frameworkAbstract: This project will examine the use of arson in homicide cases in Australia since 1990. It will involve a partnership between ACART and the Australian Institute of Criminology’s National Homicide Monitoring Program in order to examine the link between crime scene indicators, firesetter characteristics and the Multi-Trajectory Theory of Adult Firesetting treatment program. The project has relevance to treatment providers, investigators and researchers by linking all three in a comprehensive assessment of arson associated fires and the offenders who perpetrate them. Multidimensional statistical analysis will be used to identify themes and logistic regression will be employed to identify relevant predictor variables. Results will be of benefit to investigators and mental health professionals, as well as informing prevention efforts. Australian Fire CausesSource: Bryant 2008 30%30%40%Unknown CauseMaliciously LitNon-MaliciousCosts of Bushfires and other Natural Disasters (1967-99)Source: BTE 20010225450675900Bushfires Cyclone Flood Storm Landslide EarthquakeCosts of Bushfires and Other Natural Disasters (1967-1999)Number of Fatalities Costs ($ million)Fritzon, K., Lewis, H., and Doley, R. (2012). Looking at the characteristics of adult arsonists from a narrative perspective. Psychiatry, Psychology and the Law, 18, 424-438. Howells, K., Watt, B., Hall, G., & Baldwin, S.  (1997).  Developing programmes for violent offenders.  Legal and Criminological Psychology, 2, 117 - 128. Miller, S., and Fritzon, K. (2007). Functional consistency across two behavioural modalities: Firesetting and self harm in female special hospital patients. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 17, 31-44. Prestemon, J., and Butry, D. (2005). Time to burn: Modeling wildfire arson as an autoaggressive crime function. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 87, 756-770Santilla, P., Hakkanen, H., and Fritzon, K. (2003). Inferring the characteristics of an arsonist from crime scene behaviour: A case study in offender profiling. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 5, 1-15. Stanley, J. and Kestin, T., eds. (2010) “Advancing Bushfire Arson Prevention in Australia: Report from a national symposium, 25–26 March 2010”. MSI Report 10/3, Monash Sustainability Institute, Melbourne, Australia. Watt, B. D., & Howells, K.  (1999). Skills training for aggression control:  Evaluation of an anger management programme.  Legal and Criminological Psychology, 4, 285 - 300.Dr. Bruce Watt    |    Dr. Rebekah Doley   |    Dr. Claire Ferguson Psychology Department

The Use of Fire in Australian Homicide Cases: A Link to MTTAF and the Action Systems Framework

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The Use of Fire in Australian Homicide Cases: A Link to MTTAF and the Action Systems Framework

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