Psych Vivas · Forensic psychiatry — arson and fire-setting
Arson and fire-setting — structured clinical viva
Fellowship viva covering terminology triad, epidemiology, pathways, assessment, treatment, and legal-clinical interface for arson and fire-setting.
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Triad. Firesetting (behaviour) ≠ arson (crime) ≠ pyromania (rare diagnosis with exclusions).[1]
Epidemiology. Community fire-setting ~1% order with comorbidity (NESARC); pyromania rare in recidivist series (Lindberg); arson strongly associated with psychosis among crime types (Anwar) without implying high absolute risk for every patient.[2][3][4]
Pathways. Instrumental, revenge, thrill/interest, psychosis-driven, substance-facilitated, developmental/ID/youth — multi-trajectory not single type.[1][6]
Assessment/treatment. Multi-source reconstruction; fire-specific needs; specialist programmes show effects on fire-related factors (Gannon FIPP-style; FIP-MO for mentally disordered offenders); treat underlying illness/substances; means restriction.[5][6]
Legal. Responsibility then / fitness now / fire risk future; diagnosis ≠ defence; no invented sections.[7]
Youth. Long-term offending trajectories; public-health response (Lambie).[8]
References8ShowHide
- [1]Burton PR, McNiel DE, Binder RL Firesetting, arson, pyromania, and the forensic mental health expert J Am Acad Psychiatry Law, 2012.PMID 22960918
- [2]Blanco C, Alegría AA, Petry NM, et al. Prevalence and correlates of fire-setting in the United States: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) J Clin Psychiatry, 2010.PMID 20361899
- [3]Lindberg N, Holi MM, Tani P, et al. Looking for pyromania: characteristics of a consecutive sample of Finnish male criminals with histories of recidivist fire-setting BMC Psychiatry, 2005.PMID 16351734
- [4]Anwar S, Långström N, Grann M, et al. Is arson the crime most strongly associated with psychosis? A national case-control study of arson risk in schizophrenia and other psychoses Schizophr Bull, 2011.PMID 19850668
- [5]Gannon TA, Alleyne E, Butler H, et al. Specialist group therapy for psychological factors associated with firesetting: Evidence of a treatment effect from a non-randomized trial with male prisoners Behav Res Ther, 2015.PMID 26248329
- [6]Tyler N, Gannon TA, Sambrooks K Arson assessment and treatment: the need for an evidence-based approach Lancet Psychiatry, 2019.PMID 31544760
- [7]American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law AAPL Practice Guideline for forensic psychiatric evaluation of defendants raising the insanity defense J Am Acad Psychiatry Law, 2014.PMID 25492121
- [8]Lambie I, Ioane J, Randell I, et al. Offending behaviours of child and adolescent firesetters over a 10-year follow-up J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 2013.PMID 23927002