Mentally Disordered Firesetters: An Examination of Risk Factors

Abstract

Objective: In this study, we examined the risk-related characteristics of mentally disordered patients who had either been (1) involved in a firesetting incident or (2) involved in a nonfiresetting comparison incident while under the care of the National Health Service (NHS). Method: A total of 132 participants were recruited from an NHS Care Group in England (66 mentally disordered firesetters, 66 mentally disordered comparisons). Logistic regression was used to model the ability of static, dynamic, and incident-related factors in predicting whether a patient had set a fire (including gender-sensitive subanalyses), whether a patient firesetter was male or female, and a one-time or repeat firesetter. Results: We identified a cluster of variables that predicted firesetting status. We also identified key factors that predicted female patient firesetters relative to female patient controls who engaged in other undesirable behaviors and male patient firesetters. A cluster of variables predictive of repeat versus one-time firesetting also emerged. Conclusions: Findings are discussed in relation to further development of risk-related firesetting theory.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Nichola Tyler for her helpful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Although Ducat et al.’s (2017) recently published paper compares firesetters on characteristics of psychopathology, it does not specifically examine MDFs.

2 This did not include prison health care.

3 We set up the original checklist to obtain information on fire interest, passive personality, and confrontation avoidance. However, these variables had to be removed from the checklist because of difficulty ascertaining their presence/absence from file review data alone.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Becky Wyatt

Becky Wyatt is an Mphil Candidate working at the University of Kent.

Theresa A. Gannon

Theresa A. Gannon is Professor of Forensic Psychology and Director of CORE-FP at the University of Kent and Consultant Forensic Psychologist for the Forensic Care Group, Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, UK.

Troy E. McEwan

Troy McEwan is Associate Professor in Clinical and Forensic Psychology at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University of Technology and a Clinical - Forensic Psychologist at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (Forensicare), Australia.

Lona Lockerbie

Lona Lockerbie is Care Group Director and Lead for Psychological Practice, Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, UK.

Alisha O’Connor

Alisha O’Connor is a PhD Candidate at the University of Kent.