A strong link between fire setting as a youngster and criminal behaviour as an adult has been found in New Zealand Fire Service research.

The study, which was supported by Police and funded by the Fire Service Commission, examined the criminal records of 200 young people who went through the New Zealand Fire Service education programme for young fire-setters. It showed that only two per cent went on to commit further arsons over the following 10 years.  However it revealed that 55 per cent went on to commit other crimes.

The Fire Service Fire Awareness and Intervention Programme (FAIP) is provided to several hundred children and adolescents each year.  They are referred by parents or agencies because they have deliberately set fires, or show worrying fire-related behaviour.   Young people under the age of 21 are responsible for around three quarters of the country’s recorded arson, and six out of ten of these young people are under 17.

FAIP has been operating in New Zealand for almost 20 years and the study by researchers from the Psychology Department at the University of Auckland showed that parents, professionals and participants felt the programme was helpful in raising awareness about the danger and consequences of fire. 

Lead researcher and clinical psychologist Dr Ian Lambie said “The young offenders almost all had serious antisocial behavior and many came from dysfunctional and multi-problem families.  Of the 200 in the study, over a dozen were imprisoned at some point over the 10-year period. Dr Lambie said "This is the first time that such a large study of this type has been conducted in the southern hemisphere and is one of the largest of ever undertaken internationally on child fire-setters.  It is unique in that it followed the young people over such a long time and used such a large sample.

"It appears that their fire setting was not as persistent and prevalent as their other offending behaviour.  However this is very likely due to the positive impact that the FAIP education had on reducing fire-setting.   It might be that some young people also grow out of fire setting and replace it with other criminal behaviour.  Or it could be a combination of the two –we need to do more research to find out," he said.

Dr Lambie would also like to find out whether there some of the young recidivist fire-setters were referred to CYFS but did not come to the attention of the Police. 

"What is clear from this recent research  is that many fire setters are at high risk of future criminal offending so we need to build on our multi-agency, collaborative approach to address their needs."

Fire Service manager of FAIP Peter Wilding says, "We’re delighted this rigorous research project confirms the incredible effectiveness of FAIP in helping children overcome fire-lighting behaviour. Our challenge now is to make sure parents, caregivers, schools, and others responsible for the care and safety of children, know about the programme and how to access it from our website."

Peter Wilding is concerned by the high levels of other criminal offending revealed by the research.  “It would be useful to examine whether it would be viable to expand the programme to address other anti social behaviours,” he said.

Contact:  Fire Service senior media advisor Karlum Lattimore 04 496 3702 or  Dr Ian Lambie (027) 280-9948 or i.lambie@auckland.ac.nz