A Study of Life Course and Crime Pattern of Arsonists

• Main Authors: Chih-hsin Lin, 林志信
• Other Authors: none
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/16019102425411853215

博士 === 國立中正大學 === 犯罪防治所 === 98 === Three interrelated studies on this subject had been conducted in this thesis. In order to explore the characteristics of the arsonists, many court verdicts related to this theme were collected from the Judicial Yuan. The Document Analysis method is used in Study 1. The Qualitative Research technique was applied to Study 2, which contains interviews of some typical arsonists about their life courses and crime patterns. In study 3, self-reported questionnaires are used to analyze their life courses and crime patterns. With the study data analysis, the research results are listed as follows: 1.Based on the 731 court verdicts related to arson crimes, we can see that most arsonists set fire for the first time, alone, in the middle of the night, on some object not on people, targeting at residential buildings, especially arcades or doors. In the crime pattern studies, we can learn that the main cause of arsonists setting fire is revenge, and they like to use gasoline as a tool. Crime records and psychotic disorders play important roles on predicting whether arsonists become recidivism or not. Finally, we also suggest how to modify the Crime Code of arson crimes. 2.The qualitative research on 16 arsonists reveals that many factors are related to arson crimes. They include personal characteristics, family structure, family life, school life, deviant peers, devious activities, delinquency and negative life events. Arson crime patterns include motive, process, preparation, situation, trick, emotional response and action response. A arsonist life course and a graphic of crime patterns have been proposed at the end of the study. 3.Based on the self-reported questionnaires with 153 arsonists, 127 burglars, 119 drug dealers, 129 assultists and 264 non-convicts as a control group, below are the results found: （1）The results show that arsonists have less education, poorer financials, crime records, alcohol abuse, tobacco abuse, and drug abuse compared to the control group. （2）Through Path Analysis, crime record, low self control, school life, family life, education degree, peer relationship, and age correlate closely to arson crimes. （3）To distinguish first offenders from arsonist recidivism, the crime record and egocentrism factors are the most important. Finally, we can get a 90.8% accurate rate in the Logistic Regression. （4）To distinguish first offenders from arsonist recidivism, crime records, egocentrism and mother education are the most important factors. Finally, we can get a 81.0% accurate rate in the Discriminant Analysis. According to the research findings, this study provides several suggestions and arson prevention strategies for family, school, society, the government and the correctional department. Hopefully we can efficiently reduce the number of arson cases and protect people’s life and property.