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The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate treatment for adult fire setters with an intellectual disability, given the specific risks they present, the complexities of criminal proceedings associated with their behaviour, and subsequent rehabilitation. However, the review also took into account programmes for fire setters in the wider population, including those for children and adolescents, given that such research might also inform the development of programmes for offenders with an intellectual disability.

A systematic review of the literature was undertaken.

Only four studies which evaluated treatment programmes specifically for arsonists with an intellectual disability were identified. Although each of these studies reported a reduction in fire‐setting behaviour following programme completion, all employed relatively weak research designs. An additional 12 studies investigating programmes for arsonists without intellectual disability were also identified. It is concluded that there is a lack of evidence regarding treatment programme outcomes for arsonists with an intellectual disability. The extent to which such programmes can be adapted to suit adult offenders with an intellectual disability is discussed, with recommendations made for the design and evaluation of arson treatment programmes for offenders with intellectual disabilities.

Currently, minimal treatments programs exist for fire setting in offenders with intellectual disability. This review highlights the importance of further research into treatment programs for this specialised population.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implementation and evaluation of interventions for women firesetters in high secure mental healthcare at the UK’s National Women’s Service.

Two types of Arson treatment programmes for women, one delivered to individuals, the other within a group context, were developed, delivered and evaluated. The evaluation incorporated qualitative and quantitative data, including psychometric measures. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis.

The evaluation evidenced very high engagement with and attendance at treatment programmes, and several post-treatment gains. Participants’ ratings of programmes and qualitative feedback were similarly very positive. The study demonstrated that engaging women firesetters in their treatment is paramount and can be facilitated by consistent boundaries around therapy provision balanced with sensitivity, empathy and flexibility; providing interactive and varied teaching methods; ongoing service user involvement and recognising participants’ achievements; employing a mixed cognitive analytic therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy therapeutic approach; having input from fire service staff; and maintaining organisational support for firesetting interventions.

In all, 12 key recommendations are made for clinicians considering offering treatment programmes for women firesetters.

Amid few published papers on treating women firesetters this paper guides forensic clinicians in establishing and delivering interventions for women firesetters.

This pilot study investigated three historical risk factors for pathological arson identified in Jackson's Only Viable Option theory (Jackson, 1994), which views the act as an adaptive response to circumstances that are difficult to tolerate and which the individual does not have the necessary skills to resolve by appropriate means. Twenty men with mild learning disabilities were recruited from inpatient forensic services. It was hypothesised that there would be a greater incidence of risk factors among individuals with an index offence of arson than those without, and that risk factors would significantly predict an index offence of arson. Significant differences were found between the groups for perceived inability to effect social change and childhood experiences of fire, but not for the family problems under investigation. However, the sample size was too small to draw reliable conclusions on the predictive ability of the risk factors. The findings suggest that perceived inability to effect social change and childhood experiences of fire are risk factors characteristic of men with learning disabilities who have set fires, lending support to elements of Jackson's theory and providing opportunities to develop evidence‐based practice. However, the underlying causes of these risk‐factor characteristics remain unclear. It is hoped that the present study will help inform the choice of risk factors under investigation and improve the design of a larger study.

Fire setters who have an intellectual disability (ID) are often identified as posing a particular danger to the community although relatively little is known about their characteristics, treatment and support needs. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This study describes the characteristics of 134 residents of low, medium and high security ID facilities in the UK who have either an index offence of arson, a violent index offence or a sexual index offence.

Index arson offenders who had an ID had multiple prior convictions, a history of violent offending and a high likelihood of having a comorbid mental disorder. There were many shared characteristics across the three groups.

The current study suggests that offenders who have ID who set fires have treatment needs that are similar to those of violent and sex offenders. It follows that fire setters who have an ID may also benefit from participating in more established offending behaviour treatment programs, such as cognitive behaviour therapy programs, developed for other types of offender.

This study is one of the few which has investigated the characteristics and treatment needs of persons who have an ID who set fires. In particular, it is one of the first to compare the characteristics and treatment needs for persons with ID who set fires, to those who have committed violent and sexual offences.

Offenders with intellectual disability (ID) who commit arson and other acts of fire setting are over-represented in the criminal justice system in Australia, as in many other jurisdictions. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the judicial considerations that influence sentencing in these cases.

Case law was utilised to locate and analyse judges’ sentencing remarks for offenders with ID found guilty of an offence of arson. These data were subject to Inductive Content Analysis to establish the major judicial considerations in sentencing.

Seven common issues emerged: general deterrence, seriousness of arson, rehabilitation, sentencing options, moral culpability, protection of the community, and punishment. Judges noted that they handed down reduced sentences to persons with ID relative to the severity of their offending, that they considered people with ID to have low levels of moral culpability, and that these offenders did not provide good examples for community deterrence.

The current study highlights the need for judges to have available a range of sentencing options, including diversion and treatment/rehabilitation programmes for persons with ID, particularly for those involved in more serious offences such as arson.

Previous qualitative research by Horsley (2020) and Lee (2019) highlighted the importance of self-concept (SC) in understanding fire use. This study, therefore, aims to further investigate the relevance of SC in non-criminalised fire use, with a view towards informing early interventions for firesetting prevention.

In this preliminary study, ten participants engaging in extensive, non-criminalised fire use were interviewed about their fire-related experiences and how this relates to SC. This was analysed using techniques informed by the grounded theory.

Three core categories were identified: control, identity and self-esteem, which provide a preliminary framework for understanding how SC and non-criminalised fire use are inter-related. The core categories relate to the study aim because they are conceptualised as three elements of SC, which are strengthened through interactions with fire. The mechanisms through which the categories relate to fire use and SC are discussed.

Forensic implications are discussed regarding early intervention and prevention. The authors argue that knowledge of non-criminalised fire use could provide a valuable blueprint for healthy fire use and, thus, feed into treatment and intervention. Given that previous research has highlighted the importance of SC in relation to how and why people interact with fire, the authors suggest that it should be given greater emphasis in clinical work with those thought to be at risk of firesetting.

To date, firesetting research has focused primarily on criminalised acts, i.e. arson. This paper adopts a different approach and explores how and why people engage with fire in healthy and adaptive ways.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the antecedent behaviours and consequences of firesetting for women in a secure psychiatric setting along with treatment engagement factors. To explore predictions made about emotionally expressive subtype firesetters by the multi-trajectory theory of adult firesetting (M-TTAF).

In total, 75 individual firesetting episodes involving 25 female multiple firesetters were assessed using the St Andrew's Fire and Arson Risk Instrument. Assessments were made of treatment readiness, firesetting related self-efficacy, insight and barriers to change.

Findings support the relationship between recidivist firesetting and the psychological features of psychosis, personality disorder and substance misuse. The reported association of firesetting with suicidal thoughts, depression, interpersonal problems, anger/revenge motivation and lack of planning supports the view that behaviour is used to manage distressing life experience and as a “cry for help”. However, in a quarter of incidents there was an intention to harm others and evidence of premeditation in twelve percent. A small but significant minority lacked insight into their behaviour, were not ready for treatment and had low firesetting related self-efficacy. Predictions made by the M-TTAF about likely clinical features and motivators of emotionally expressive firesetters were largely supported.

The study highlights the importance of a detailed and specific risk assessment of firesetting that leads to identification of individual risk factors and an individualised treatment approach. This is of particular importance given the complex problems presented by women in secure settings and by the diversity of the conditions associated with fires set by each individual.

The purpose of this paper is to present the development and evaluation of an original training package for staff members on fire-setting in people with intellectual disabilities. It also included training on functional analysis as a model of formulating the fire-setting behaviour. The quality and effectiveness of the training was assessed and is reported in this paper.

The training was delivered on a ward for people with intellectual disabilities in a UK NHS Trust Low Secure Hospital and was attended by various members of the multidisciplinary team for the ward. The workshop consisted of four modules: theoretical background of fire-setting, the functional analysis model of fire-setting formulation, offence-paralleling behaviours in secure settings and a case study practice. Level of self-reported understanding of the various aspects of the training was measured by an evaluation questionnaire completed pre and post training.

The results of this study showed that following the training there was a significant increase in self-reported understanding of staff members. The participants reported an increase in understanding of fire-setting, functional analysis and formulation of individuals with an intellectual disability and history of fire-setting.

This study highlights the potential for staff training to increase awareness of fire-setting behaviours by people with intellectual disabilities. The staff training in formulation would encourage their involvement in development of team formulations and may subsequently increase their understanding of such individuals.

Fire-related offences are costly in human and financial terms. Fire education is widely used with juveniles and with adults in forensic psychiatric settings; however, with prison/probation clients there has been a lack of focus on its potential. This study asked participants of a structured fire education programme for adults how they experienced it and its impact on their feelings about firesetting.

Participants were 15 programme completers, including ten males and five females. All were adults that had attended the programme during their sentence, either in the community or whilst in custody.

Using an inductive thematic analysis this study interpreted the following themes: a supportive and responsive approach, impactful learning materials and methods, a new way of thinking, and picking up the pieces. This study proposes that the intervention may activate change through its powerful methods including fact-based arguments and support from legitimate experts.

Firesetters’ Integrated Responsive Educational Programme (FIRE-P) is a novel example of a specialist structured fire education programme for adult firesetters. This is the first paper to outline its structure and content. Understanding how change occurs in FIRE-P has implications for intervention design and delivery with this client group.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first qualitative study of a structured fire education programme for adults and provides researchers and practitioners with insight into the ingredients of a successful fire education programme.

Most individuals regularly encounter fire, but certain uses are legally disallowed. Horsley (2020, 2021; in press) proposed the continuum of fire use theory (CoFUT), which posits that the legitimacy of fire use exists on a spectrum. This study aims to investigate the CoFUT and to elucidate the process of conceptualising legitimacy in a sample of legitimate fire users.

A sample of 16 legitimate fire users underwent semi-structured interviews regarding their own experiences with fire, the factors considered when determining the legitimacy of fire use and the relationships between those factors. The data extracted was subjected to conceptual analysis.

Analysis indicated that the legitimacy of fire use is best conceptualised along a continuum. Placement on the continuum required consideration of seven defining attributes: function; location; scale; materials used; characteristics of the actor(s); potential and actual consequences, and social acceptance. These attributes were shown to have interactive semantic relationships with one another.

A continuum approach to understanding fire use is a novel conceptualisation. Exposing the nuances that exist along the continuum could inform early intervention strategies aimed at fostering healthy relationships between young people and fire. Furthermore, practitioners working with arsonists would benefit from adopting a continuum perspective that allows for consideration of offenders’ individualised trajectory “up and down” the continuum of fire use.

Findings offer support for the CoFUT (2020; 2021; in press) and provide insight into how the legitimacy of fire use is conceptualised in legitimate fire users.