Did you all see that investigators believe at least one of the California wildfires
was the result of arson? That just baffles me. Why on Earth would someone deliberately start a wildfire? It's not the arson per se I don't understand. I can think of lots of reasons someone might, for example, intentionally burn down a residence or other building: to collect insurance money, to cover up a homicide or other crime, to get revenge, etc. But a wildfire? That doesn't seem like it would have the same motivation as residential (or even commercial) arson. Seems to me like it is more of a "grand gesture" type crime. I can imagine someone recently fired from a job or spurned by a lover wanting to "prove" his or her significance by doing something that will dominate national news headlines...but that's about all I've got. What are your thoughts? What theories (or common sense observations) might explain someone's motivation to start a wildfire?
UPDATE: Seems Joe
was right after all (and so was Patch).
"There are so many kinds of arsonists," said Joe Sesniak, a longtime fire investigator with the International Association of Arson Investigators, which trains arson detectives around the country.
One type of arsonist is a "hero," Sesniak said. An example is John Orr. He was a fire captain and arson investigator with the Glendale Fire Department in Southern California. Orr was convicted of setting three fires in 1987.
The majority of fire-setters are children fascinated by flames, Sesniak said. Some arsonists get sexual satisfaction from setting fires, others want to collect insurance money or are motivated by revenge, he said. So-called eco-terrorists are out to destroy development projects they feel are infringing on natural habitat.
6 comments:
My initial thought is traditional criminological theories tend to be based in sociological perspectives, which may not fit this type of behavior. I think it is easier to understand the motivation for this behavior from psychology perspectives...particularly clinical psychology. Some of the stuff I've read indicated this was not only intentional, but done by someone who understood how to start a wildfire. To me, that implies someone with a disorder that produces a fascination with fire and likely a compulsion to feed that fascination.
Then again, I've been wrong before (3 times today alone, and it ain't even 6 am...I'm like the Army...I'm wrong more before 9am than most people are all day).
When I worked with delinquent youth prior to grad school I had three kids in my group who burnt down a church. And it wasn't just that they were playing with the candles and it accidentally went up in flames - they intentionally did it. I still don't understand why. Sometimes the behaviors of others - and even our own behavior - defies explanation. Now I sound like a postmodernist. ARGH!
Interesting thought, Joe. Like the Donald Sutherland character in Backdraft? ("Did it look at you? Did the fire look at you?") Man, now I'm in the mood to watch that movie.
You're right, Patch. I know that starting fires is an indicator of serious antisocial behavior (along with, IIRC, bed-wetting and cruelty to animals -- sometimes called the "homicidal triad")...so do you think the motivation is the same in wildfires as in other types of fires? Just that, if you live in SoCal you torch a forest instead of a building like you would if you lived in an urban area? I dunno -- for whatever reason this question has really piqued my interest today...
Okay. Here's food for thought. What's the major concern in the financial markets today? ANSWER: The housing markets and loan delinquincies. Who's hurting by this (besides everyone really), is constructions companies, and loan companies. There is no work for construction companies cause no one is buying houses right now and loan companies who are trying to call in their loans can't get paid cause people that hold the property aren't able to sell them. There is your motive right there. So, maybe one of these construction companies or loan companies set out to do something like this. You know construction companies are going to have a lot of work now! And loan companies aren't going to get screwed on their loans cause the insurance companies have to bail them out! Sound stupid? Possibly! But its a reasonable motive. Plus, if someone did do it. They did it at the exact perfect time, with the Santa Anna winds. On top of this all, southern california was a key player in the deterioration of the mortgage markets.
Oooh. A conflict theory SI- very interesting. I agree with Joe in many ways. I see it in a Katz manner with the excitement of crime and the resulting hero mentality.
What about me, I was right about this as well......you know how much work these wildfires gave constructions companies that would have otherwise had absolutely zero to do with the housing market being so horrible. Look around the country and see what construction companies are doing and look in SD and see that there is a construction machine on every other block because of the fires....
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