Firesetting and Firesetters in the Netherlands

Individualization, Identification and Treatment

Lydia Dalhuisen

• Publisher: Eleven International Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9789462746145
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

Firesetting can have devastating effects, including loss of life and serious financial damage. With its potentially severe negative consequences, this type of behaviour has enormous impact on society. Remarkably, however, this phenomenon has received little attention in research, leaving the questions largely unanswered regarding how firesetters can best be individualised, caught by the police and treated in forensic mental health institutions. Based on the first large-scale research project studying firesetters in the Netherlands, this monograph provides answers resulting from analyses at a macro, meso and micro level. These analyses show that firesetters are a heterogeneous group, whose subgroups have their own specific diagnostics and characteristics. These characteristics can guide the police investigation in cases of firesetting. Furthermore, the subgroups found have specific treatment needs, as described in a differentiated treatment model. In order to be effective, treatment should focus on these specific needs. In short, this study contributes to knowledge on the firesetting phenomenon, highlighting the need for differentiation both in individualising and identifying as well as in treating firesetters. This book is part of the so-called Pompe series, which contains publications by staff members of the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology in Utrecht, and by authors closely aligned to the school of thought for which the Institute is known. One of its main characteristics has always been the combination of legal and social-scientific approaches to problems of criminal law. The central theme of the Institute's research programme is the protection and enforcement of fundamental rights in a changing world. Within that programme, research focuses on the position of vulnerable groups in relation to the state and on the significance of individual human rights in an international context. (Series: Willem Pompe Institute, Vol. 83) [Subject: Criminal Law, Criminology]

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Preface
• Overview
• Table of contents
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2 Methods of data collection and analysis
• Part I Historical and theoretical background
• Chapter 3 The historical development of firesetting from a medico-legal perspective 1800-1950
• Chapter 4 The observation of mental disorder and dangerousness in firesetters A Dutch contemporary appraisal
• Chapter 5 Explaining firesetting A multidisciplinary approach
• Part II Literature review
• Chapter 6 Characterization and categorization of firesetters
• Chapter 7 Treatment of firesetters
• Part III Firesetters and their fires from an empirical perspective
• Chapter 8 Populations of firesetters A description and comparison
• Chapter 9 Subgroups of firesetters The next step towards individualization
• Chapter 10 From offence to offender Identification of firesetters based on relevant characteristics
• Chapter 11 A model of differentiated treatment
• Chapter 12 Integration
• Appendices
• Samenvatting
• References
• Index
• Previous publications
• Curriculum Vitae