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Regular inclusion of a social worker alongside the expertising physician whenever a judge has to decide on committing a person to a psychiatric hospital, is known in German legal practice as "Stuttgart model". Our experiences with this procedure are discussed on an interdisciplinary level. In our opinion this model agrees with the spirit of the new German law governing guardianship and care.
The Los Angeles civil unrest in April 1992 stunned the nation. The days of violence resulted in 53 deaths, 2,325 reported injuries, more than 600 buildings completely destroyed by fire, and approximately $735 million in total damages. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the activities of the Public Health Programs and Services Branch of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services during and after the civil unrest and to illustrate the types of public health issues and problems that may result from large-scale civil disturbance. Public health agencies and jurisdictions should consider these issues in their disaster planning. Public Health Programs and Services Branch activities were directly affected by the violence and destruction. Women, Infants and Children Program vouchering sites and 20 drug program and alcohol recovery sites were damaged or burned and 15 county health centers closed during the unrest. At least 38 private medical and dental offices and 45 pharmacies were destroyed or damaged. County health authorities offered facilities to house relocated private care providers and filled prescriptions for medications where needed. The environmental health impact required the inspection of 2,827 burned and damaged sites for hazardous waste including asbestos; at 9 percent of the inspected sites, waste required special disposal. More than 1,000 food facilities suffered damage and required inspection before reopening. In the 3 months following the unrest, a 20-percent increase in disposal capacity was authorized at four county landfills to accommodate the disposal of debris. Violence was a public health issue of particular concern. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a team to study the violence from an epidemiologic perspective. The Federal agency also provided funding for televised children's talk shows dealing with reactions to the violence.
This research evaluated the arson trend in Finland since the 1960s by analyzing the Official Crime Statistics of Finland registered by the police and examined more detailed about arsonists (n = 98), who had been in the forensic psychiatric pretrial examination by using homicide offenders (n = 55) as control subjects. From 1965 to 1991 the percentage of arson in relation to all crimes increased fivefold and in the same timeframe the amount of arson increased nearly tenfold. According to the police in Finland there are committed over 700 arsons every year, of which 90% are committed by men. The percentage of women has however increased 0.2% yearly. Women today commit about 10% and juveniles 10 to 15% of all arsons. The arsonists differed from the homicide offenders regarding rural residence (P = 0.009), poor education (P = 0.004), absence of regular work at the time of the crime (P = 0.004), suicidality (P = 0.001), alcohol problems (P = 0.002), psychiatric care (P = 0.000.02) and arsonists more commonly found to be not responsible for the crime committed (P = 0.01).
In this study we evaluated whether arsonists (n = 98) differ from homicide offenders (n = 55) in regard to psychiatric disorders, suicidality, and criminal responsibility in the context of forensic psychiatric pretrial examinations. Arsonists were mainly male, poorly educated, unemployed, and living in rural areas. Eighty-four percent of the arsonists and 62 percent of the homicide offenders had an alcohol abuse problem. This difference was statistically significant (p = .002). The arsonists more commonly had suicidal thoughts and attempted suicides. Over one-third of the arsonists used fire-setting as a suicide attempt. In comparing the arsonists with the control group, there was a statistically significant difference in the variables that indicate suicidality. Arsonists more commonly had diagnosed psychiatric diseases (p = .008). The incidence of psychoses was fourfold, chronic or severe depression about threefold, and mental retardation twofold when compared with the homicide offenders. Eighty-five percent of the arsonists had received psychiatric care before the crime was committed. The arsonists were more often found to be not criminally responsible for the crime committed (p = .01).
In some religious societies, the value of life seems to be different from that in western nonreligious societies. Violating the family honor could result in killing. This article presents a case in which a Moslem Israeli citizen killed his daughter. Professional field work, together with forensic laboratory examinations, led to life imprisonment of the father.
Diethyl ether was found in samples of the blood, urine, and lung from a fire victim. Because the lung also carried a number of low-boiling paraffins, it was inferred that the detected compounds came from engine starting fluid, which the victim apparently had been exposed to while be intentionally used it as an accelerant to start the fire. The reported death illustrates the value of searching post mortem samples for highly volatile residues of possible arson accelerants.
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Three patients, two males of 37 and 38 years and one female of 23 years, committed arson inspired by complicated psychiatric problems. They did not meet the specific diagnostic criteria of pyromania. Arson as a rule is not the same thing as pyromania.
Arson, the second leading cause of residential fire-associated deaths in the United States, accounts for approximately 700 deaths annually, destroys homes, and destabilizes neighborhoods. In Detroit, Michigan (1990 population: 1,027,974), arson accounted for nearly half (46.3%) of all fire-related deaths since 1984. During the late 1970s, pre-Halloween pranks traditionally associated in some parts of the United States with the night of October 30 turned destructive in Detroit, with hundreds of fires set throughout the city. By 1984, October 30 became known as "Devil's Night" and had evolved to 3 consecutive nights of arson on October 29-31; in that year, a record 810 fires were reported. In 1985, Detroit began a citywide intervention campaign against arson and vandalism during the 3-day Halloween period using data from an ongoing fire surveillance system maintained by the Detroit Fire Department (DFD) to target areas at high risk for arson. This report describes the intervention implemented by the city of Detroit from 1985 through 1996 and the impact of the intervention in preventing Halloween arson; approximately 34,000 volunteers participated in 1996, and the number of fires during this 3-day period decreased to the average number of fires for any other 3-day period during the remainder of the year.
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Life-time criminality, family history, and situational factors during a fire-setting offense were compared between 44 fire setters who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia or delusional psychosis and 260 nonpsychotic fire setters who had undergone a pretrial forensic psychiatric evaluation. The same comparisons were made between alcoholic (n = 25) and nonalcoholic (n = 19) schizophrenic fire setters. Medical and criminal records were studied. Life-time criminal histories of schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic fire setters were not significantly different with respect to multiple fire setting and violent offenses. Nonschizophrenic and alcoholic schizophrenic fire setters had, in general, a high rate of criminal offenses. The family history of schizophrenic fire setters was often characterized by the father's alcoholism and the mother's psychosis. Comorbid familial alcoholism increased life-time criminal recidivism among schizophrenic fire setters.
The present study evaluated curiosity and anger as motives among childhood firesetters. Parents of 133 firesetters (ages 6-13) completed the Fire Incident Analysis (FIA) to permit classification of the children as high and low on each of these two primary motives and to document details of the child's most serious incident within the past 12 months. The children were compared on measures of child dysfunction and firesetting history. An effect of Curiosity was found on measures of psychopathology, firesetting risk, and fire involvement, whereas an effect of Anger was found on measures of firesetting risk and the behavioral correlates of individual incidents. The results clarify the role of child motive in understanding firesetting involvement.
The purpose of this study was to identify parent and family characteristics related to juvenile firesetting and antisocial behavior among severely disturbed children. Hospitalized children (ages 6-12) identified as firesetters (n = 27) and non-firesetters (n = 27) were compared in terms of parental psychopathology, dyadic adjustment, and family environment. To separate the impact of conduct disorder in contributing to group differences, diagnosis and firesetting status were separated in the data analyses. The results indicated that parents of firesetters showed significantly greater dysfunction in terms of psychiatric symptoms, and higher levels of depression, and reported lower levels of affectional expression, consensus, and overall adjustment in their dyadic relationships. The findings suggest that among a clinical sample, specific parent and marital characteristics delineate firesetters. The contribution of parental and marital influences to antisocial behavior more generally and the need to focus specifically on firesetting in relation to these variables are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to explore dangerousness and fire setting recidivism of mentally disordered firesetters in comparison with mentally healthy arsonists. In Germany, all trials are registered centrally by the Federal Central Register. The records of this Register for the three year period from 1983 until 1985 were used in this follow-up study of arsonists to identify three samples of subjects: (1) All persons convicted of arson who have been found not guilty by reasons of insanity (n = 186), (2) all person convicted of arson who have been found guilty of diminished responsibility (n = 97), and (3) a random selection from all persons convicted of arson who have had no psychiatric examination in their trial (n = 187). The follow-up ended in 1994, providing a period of, on average, ten years. Mentally disordered arsonists differed from non-mentally disordered arsonists in the following ways: They were more likely, first, to have a history of arson before 1983, and secondly, to be convicted of arson again (11% relapse compared to 4%). Mentally disordered arsonists had fewer registrations of common offenses, such as theft as well as traffic violations and alcohol-related offenses. Based on the present sample, mentally disordered firesetters have a higher rate of recurrence of firesetting than non-mentally disordered firesetters and commit fewer common offenses other than firesetting.
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OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose of the study was to identify characteristics of children's firesetting incidents and examine the relationship of reported characteristics to psychopathology and firesetting history. METHOD: A sample of 95 firesetters were interviewed using the Fire Incident Analysis for Children (FIAC). Other child or parent measures were obtained reflecting behavioral correlates and risk factors for firesetting at initial assessment, and firesetting history measures at 2-year follow-up. RESULTS: Access to incendiaries, lack of child remorse and parental consequences, and motives of curiosity and fun were commonly reported characteristics. Certain firesetting characteristics were associated with follow-up recidivism. Repeat versus single-incident firesetters at initial assessment were similar in firesetting characteristics but differed in measures of psychopathology and follow-up recidivism. CONCLUSIONS: Children can report on personal and environmental details of their firesetting incidents, which may help to identify those children most at-risk for setting an additional fire. The findings bear implications for understanding firesetting risk-assessment measures, the role of specialized child interviews, and potential predictors of firesetting recidivism among children.
Apart from general educational and treatment practices there is practically no attempt in providing specific rehabilitation programs for the mentally retarded adult firesetter. After a brief review of cognitive-behavior modification approaches in self-control training, the authors report on a method which has proved to be effective in cognitive and behavior analysis under threatening penalty conditions in a case of mental retardation with a history of repeated firesetting. The treatment goals are derived from the functional behavioral and cognitive analysis of the problem situation, the developmental analysis including attitudes and attributions, the motivational and self-control analysis and the analysis of social conditions. Fire-setting is defined as an operant behavior under discriminative stimulus control. An individual treatment program relevant to the different therapeutic targets is established. The proceedings are described by the authors.