Handbook on Firesetting in Children and Youth.

Handbook on Firesetting in Children and Youth, edited by David Kolko, Academic Press, San Diego, California, 2002.

The Handbook on Firesetting in Children and Youth represents an outstanding collaboration among the world's top experts on children and fire. It is so well-written that readers might forget that this work is for professionals in law enforcement, firefighting, education, and social work to enhance their abilities to detect, interdict, and treat juvenile firesetters.

Children playing with matches and lighters take a much greater toll on American lives than hurricanes and tornadoes combined. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, arson ranks as the leading crime for juvenile arrests. This behavior, the one common point of reference for most adult serial arsonists, often is misunderstood and typically overlooked, a situation that many of the contributing authors attribute to a general lack of awareness in their own fields and among the public at large. This book provides an important first step in changing that status.

This multidisciplinary book contains 17 chapters, including historical and developmental perspectives on children and fire; research and studies on the problem; fundamentals of fire investigation; tips and techniques for interviewing juveniles, assessing firesetting behavior, and taking a firesetting history; clinical assessment, safety education, and skills training; cognitive-behavioral interventions; and juvenile justice. No matter where along the continuum of professions that intersect this problem readers may lie, they will find substantive material in this book that they can put to use immediately to enhance their abilities to respond to incidents of child or adolescent firesetting.

The most salient lesson of the book is that fireplay, a multidisciplinary problem, requires teamwork to address. Neither law enforcement nor firefighting professionals working alone possess the ability to interrupt the progression of juvenile firesetters. Firefighters can douse the flames and police can arrest the offenders, but a high degree of escalating recidivism occurs that requires the intervention of other disciplines to stop. Therefore, educators, social workers, and mental health experts must join these public safety professionals to understand the bigger picture and work together to address it. According to research, most children think the difference between a "good" fire and a "bad" one is merely the size of the flame. Young children do not understand that a candle flame can become a five-alarm blaze in just a few minutes. Professionals who deal with these children must have the tools to assess whether a child burned down the family home due to mere experimentation with matches or because of serious underlying problems. For instance, when children intentionally start fires on their beds, this might indicate the presence of abuse.

More than just an academic treatise, the handbook contains copious appendices where readers will find examples of interview protocols, screening and assessment instruments, checklists for parents and caregivers, directories of recommended resources for intervention, outlines for training and program development, and even materials for mounting a public awareness campaign about this issue and its impact on communities. Contributing authors use research, program statistics, and decades of experience working directly with firesetting youth to shatter long-held myths, such as the one alleging that firesetters also are bedwetters and exhibit cruelty to animals alongside their interest in fire. The addition of this kind of material, along with summaries of the most significant related research, descriptions of the best practices for all of the affiliated disciplines, and chapters that capture the current state of the field, make this a book that the practitioner will rely on for years to come.

The handbook has received solid praise from the fire research and education communities and has become a textbook in college and graduate-level criminal justice courses.

This is an important book for fire professionals, arson investigators, and those who work with children and fire, as well as anyone serious about staying current on the emerging topic of juvenile firesetting.

Reviewed by Michael Yon 

Project Director

Kids in Danger Project of the Massachusetts Coalition for Juvenile Firesetter Programs

Westport Point, Massachusetts