have gender, will travel and set fires.....

[elfeminista]

Most forest arson is started by males...

Officials: Boy with matches started fire

By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 1 minute ago

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - Officials blamed a wildfire that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week on a boy playing with matches, and said they would ask a prosecutor to consider the case.


The boy, whose name and age were not released, admitted to sparking the fire on Oct. 21, Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Diane Hecht said Tuesday. Ferocious winds helped it quickly spread.

"He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire," Hecht said in a statement.

The boy was released to his parents, and the case will be presented to the district attorney's office, Hecht said. It was not clear if he had been arrested or cited by detectives.

The fire began in an area near Agua Dulce and quickly spread. It was among 15 or so major wildfires that destroyed some 2,100 homes and blackened 809 square miles from Los Angeles to the Mexican border last week. Seven deaths were blamed directly on the fires, six evacuees died of natural causes and one person died of a fall.

Authorities arrested five people for arson during that period, but none have been linked to any of the major blazes.

All but four of the blazes are now fully contained. Firefighters on Wednesday continued to cut lines around the remaining fires and kept a close eye on the weather.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Deputy Maribel Rizo said prosecutors were yet to determine if the boy's parents would be held accountable for any financial losses caused by the fire. Rizo did not know when prosecutors would be given the case.

Forecasters have said moderate Santa Ana winds could pick up later in the week.

Investigators have blamed an arsonist for setting a destructive wildfire in Orange County that blackened 28,500 acres and destroyed 16 homes.

Authorities were seeking the driver of a white Ford F-150 pickup truck spotted in a canyon area around the time the fire broke out. They said they wanted to talk to the driver, but stopped short of calling the person a suspect.

Officials offered a $285,000 reward to anyone with information that will lead to an arrest and conviction.

[elfeminista]

Revenge-Motivated Arson

A revenge motivated fire is set in retaliation for some injustice real or imagined perceived by the offender.
,br> This offense may be a well-planned one time event compared with the other categories of arson or the offender may be a serial arsonist taking revenge against society with little or no pre-planning.

Many arson motivations have an element of revenge in addition to the main motive. The types of revenge motivated arson included in this category are personal retaliation, social retaliation, institutional retaliation( against the government), group retaliation, intimidation and other.

Victimology
The victim of a revenge fire generally has a history of interpersonal or professional conflict with the offender.

Revenge motivated arson also tends to be an intra racial offense.


Residential property and vehicles are the prime targets. Arsonists seek revenge against society may exhibit displaced aggression by choosing targets at random. Other offenders retaliate against institutions such as churches, government facilities and universities or corporations.

The revenge fire setter is predominantly an adult male with 10 or more years of formal education. If employed this offender is usually a blue collar worker in the lower socioeconomic status. A revenge arsonist typically resides in some type of rental property. Even though this offender tends not be a loner and has close relationships the relationships generally are not stable or long term. An exception is the revenge motivated serial arsonist who is often a loner.

The revenge arsonist most often will have some type of prior law enforcement contact for crimes such as burglary, theft or vandalism. The use of alcohol with this offense is common. The offender also may use drugs during the crime but alcohol use is more prevalent. The offender is rarely accompanied to the crime scene and seldom returns once the fire is set. In fact he wants as much distance between himself and the fire as possible and concentrates on establishing an alibi. The offender usually lives within the affected community.

Mobility is a factor with him so he often uses a vehicle to get to and from the crime scene. This is in contrast to the revenge-motivated serial arsonist who frequently walks to the scene. After the fire, the offender may increase alcohol consumption. He expresses a short lives sense of relief and satisfaction and an uncaring attitude toward the victim.

Crime Concealment Motivated Arson

Arson is a secondary or collateral criminal activity perpetrated for the purpose of covering up a primary criminal activity of some nature. The types of crime concealment motivated arson included in this category: murder concealment.

The fire is an attempt to obliterate the fact that a homicide has been committed, destroy forensic evidence and or conceal the victim's identity.

Burglary concealment with an unsophisticated or less experienced burglar. The crime scene often reflects the use of available materials to start the fire and the presence of multiple offenders.

Auto theft concealment in the case of auto theft concealment, the offender will use and or strip and burn the vehicle to eliminate prints. This crime frequently involved multiple offenders.

Destruction of records, when arson is used to destroy records, the fire is set in the area where they are contained. In arson-for-profit cases records are commonly one of several points of fire origin.

Alcohol and recreational drugs use is common to the crime concealment motivated arsonist. The offender can be expected to have a history of police or fire department contacts or arrests.

The offender is most likely a young adult who lives within the surrounding community and is highly mobile especially someone involved in auto theft. The offender who uses arson to conceal burglary or auto theft is routinely accompanied to the scene by co-conspirators. Almost all offenders in this category leave the crime scene immediately and do not return.

Post offense behavior may include an increase in alcohol and or drug consumption.

Murder concealment is usually a one time event and does not involve serial arson.

The investigator inquiring into an arson set to destroy records should discover who would benefit from their concealment.

Profit Motivated Arson

Arson for profit is a fire set for the purpose of achieving material gain, either directly or indirectly. It is a commercial crime and exhibits the least passion of any of the motivations that generate the crime of arson. The types of profit motivated arson found in this category are fraud including fraud to collect insurance, fraud to conceal loss or liquidate inventory, employment, parcel clearance competition and other.

This type of arson usually involved a well-planned and methodical approach. The crime scene demonstrates a more organized style by containing less physical evidence that would identify the offender and more sophisticated incendiary devices when a large business is burned, multiple offenders may be involved.

A lack of forced entry is not infrequent in arson-for-profit cases. Use of incendiary devices is more prevalent than the use of available materials such as devices are often elaborate. The remnants of theses devices usually can be found at the crime scene.

The point of origin of the fire can also be a determining factor. As the intent of the offender is usually to totally destroy the target of arson, the selected point of origin is that which is most efficient to establish the desired loss.

A common forensic finding with arson for profit is the use of more sophisticated accelerants or mixtures.

Because the use of incendiary devices is common with arson for profit, components of these devices are additionally forensic findings that may assist the investigator.

The typical primary offender in this category is an adult male with 10 or more years of formal education; this may vary, however. A secondary offender is the torch for hire who most frequently is a male 25-40 years of age and usually unemployed. The torch operates as an agent for the primary offender, who contracts the torch's services and is the dominant personality in the total offense.

The typical primary offender for commercial fires may have no police record. The torch for hire will likely have a prior arrest record for offense such as burglary, assault public intoxication and possibly even a previous arson arrest.

The offender generally lives more than one mile from the crime scene. Many arsonists for profit are accompanied to the crime scene and most leave the scene and do not return.

The offender's pre-offense conversations with other may offer indications of premeditation. A recent change of ownership and or increase in insurance policy should raise one's suspicion.

The investigator should look for any of the following indicators financial difficulties if arson for profit is suspected:

Business:
Decreasing revenue
increasing production costs
New technology making current process/equipment inadequate
costly lease or rental agreements
unprofitable contracts, loss or key customer
Failure to record depreciation
personal expresses paid with corporate funds
bounced checks
Hypothetical assets, liens on assets over insured assets
inventory levels, removal prior to fire
overstocking caused by over production
exaggeration of loss
litigation against business or owners
bankruptcy proceedings
two sets of books maintained
prior years losses
prior insurance claims
duplicate sales invoices
alleged renovations
property has frequently change of ownership preceding fire
use of photocopies instead of original source of documents

Personal
Bounced checks
Costly lease or overdue bills
inability to pay current bills
credit limits imposed by lenders
payment of bi lls by cashier's check or money order
alleged renovations
sales between related parties
often these offenders have negative cash flow by they maintain appearances of continues financial health

Extremist Motivated Arson

Is committed to further a social political or religious cause. The types in this category are terrorism, discrimination riots/civil disturbance and other.

The crime scene reflects an organized and focused attack by the offender(s). Multiple offenders are common to this arson.

These offenders frequently employ incendiary devices such as Molotov cocktails which offer both offender and forensic information. Offenders may leave some from of message at the crime scene, symbolic messages often indicate younger offenders, communiqués are sometimes delivered orally or in writing to the media claiming responsibility or attempting to justify the violent act.

When confronting with obvious overkill in setting the fire investigators should be aware of the possibility of extreme concentrations of flammable or combustible materials used to set the fires. Unexploded incendiary devices may be found at the scene.

Extremist arsonists often are more sophisticated offenders and may use incendiary devices

Serial Arson

Arsonists who set fires repeatedly are referred to as serial fire setters.

The NCAVC classifies compulsive fire setting as mass, spree or serial

The serial arsonist is involved in three or more separate fire setting episodes with a characteristic emotional cooling off period between fires. This period may last days weeks or even years.

Serial arson is the most serious type of arson do to apparent random selection of victims and unpredictable gaps between incidents. Furthermore a serial arson is not a separate or distinct motive for fire setting it is a pattern of fire setting frequently encountered in revenge, excitement or extremist motivated arson

Serial arsonists often create a climate of fear in entire communities community leaders tend to compound the problem by pressuring law enforcement agencies to identify and quickly apprehend the fire setter often the arsonist evades apprehension for months while investigators become increasing frustrated by the lack of experience in handling these baffling cases

This type of arson usually involves a disorganized crime scene physical evidence is often present. The offender frequently uses available materials found at the scene and carries the source of ignition with them usually a long offender is involved.

The typical offender in this category is usually male. His age is generally younger than the single event arsonist. He tends to be a loner, but a secondary party may have knowledge of his activities. He will tend to be minimally educated and an underachiever. He generally has poor interpersonal relationships and is socially inadequate. Often he is unemployed and if he has an employment history it is erratic and involves little or no skill.

Serial arsonists often have a history of substance abuse and a history of police contact/arrests for minor nuisance offenses. The offender walks to the scene of the fire and generally lives within one mile of the crime scene He is very likely familiar with the crime scene and could justify his presence in the area.

It is important to analyze the cluster centers of fire activity. The tighter the cluster the closer to the area of significance to the offender.

A subtype of the serial arsonist is the extremist serial arsonist. Research suggests that this offender is usually well educated and above average in intelligence. He is highly mobile and focuses his attacks on specific targets. He uses sophisticated incendiary devices. The crime scenes is organized and there is little or no physical evidence.