Single versus multiple firesetting: an examination of demographic, behavioural and psychological factors

Deliberate firesetting is a prevalent issue. While a number of psychological treatment needs have been identified for adults who set fires, their association with multiple firesetting has received limited attention. This study examined whether demographics, offence histories, firesetting behaviours and psychometric assessments of psychological vulnerabilities hypothesised to be associated with firesetting discriminate between adults who have set only one fire and those who have set multiple fires. Participants (N =128) were recruited from prisons and categorised according to whether they self-reported having set only a single fire (n = 60) or multiple fires (n = 68) as an adult. Our findings provide evidence that identification with fire, antisocial attitudes and anger-related cognition and arousal are associated with multiple firesetting, and therefore represent key treatment targets for interventions. Furthermore, a history of setting fires within prison was the largest unique predictor of multiple firesetting (odds ratio, OR = 6.83), highlighting the urgent need for research on institutional firesetting.