Arsonists in Prison

Abstract

Arsonists in prison serving life sentences were compared with two other samples of arsonists who were serving or had served determinate sentences of 18 months or more. The lifers had little in common with the short-term men but were very like the men serving five years or more, except that their medical records showed a higher incidence of diagnoses of ‘psychopathy’ and ‘sexual abnormality’. For determinate-sentence men these two variables were predictive neither of length of sentence nor of likelihood of reconviction (whether in general or specifically for arson) when multiple-regression techniques were used. The life-sentence arsonists do not form a homogeneous group but include some men whose crimes have a compulsive element and may be sexually motivated; such men are to be found in the determinate-sentence population, but they are less common there.