A PORTRAIT OF THE JUVENILE ARSONIST

In this study we evaluated if juvenile arsonists (n = 34) differ from juvenile criminals of violence (n = 33) in regard to suicide and menta l problems in forensic psychiatric examination. Both arsonists and vio lent offenders were mostly male, poorly educated, unskilled and unempl oyed at the times of committing,their crimes; and 79% of the arsonists and 58% of the control group had used public health,services for trea tment of their mental symptoms before the crime. This difference was s ignificant (p = 0.05). Suicide was more common among the arsonists tha n the control subjects (p = 0.02); 74% of the arsonists had suicidal t houghts and 44% had tried to commit suicide before setting a fire. In the forensic psychiatric examination the arsonists were more often rel ieved from responsibility than the comparison group (P = 0.02).