Reducing Arson
Notes from the Good Practice in Arson Reduction Conference, London, UK, 20 June 2005, hosted by the Arson Control Forum.
Introduction
A key message from the conference is that early intervention is successful in reducing arson to prevent casual arsonists becoming career arsonists. In the long-term existing arson work needs to be mainstreamed to sustain good practice. Mainstreaming could be reinforced through the Priority and Prolific Offenders Initiative as a large number of PPOs are prolific offenders and arson projects that reduce such re-offending are critical to the success of the PPO initiative.
Partnership working is necessary for assessing the needs of firesetters. It involves a number of agencies including Children's Services (with their common assessment framework), YOT (ASSET scoring), Police (NIM Model) in particular. Firesetters tend to throw a common profile of poor child rearing, inconsistent discipline and relationship/personal problems.
Interventions
Ideas:
- YIPs
- Positive Activities for Young People
- Princes Trust
- Young Firefighters programmes
- Safer Schools Partnerships
- Restorative Justice
- Mentoring
- Peer education
- Targeted youth work
- DAT & Regeneration
- Strong CDRP partnership
The interventions could be more geared towards prevention (such as SureStart) or enforcement (referral order).
Good Practice
When vehicles are torched it is usually to destroy the evidence therefore the primary intervention is centred on the vehicle e.g. joy-riding. Martin Hall, of Staffordshire County Council, gave an example on youth work. He had been involved in a program including the Night Rider project. This covered road traffic education and basic life skills.
The "Xtinguish" programme includes cognitive behaviour training - addressing behaviour. It takes a reactive approach - work with offenders you know. The proactive approach - preventative work with how young people - about setting fires - can do more harm than good by young people then experimenting. The training seeks to address the underlying causes for the behaviour.
Other schemes used sports, education and agencies working together to divert young people from offending behaviour on the streets.
Arson is not a priority issue for many CDRPs partly because the Government has not set it as a priority in PSAs and LAAs. Arson should figure highly as a priority in local/neighbourhood projects where "latch-key kids" and gangs are prominent - often behind arson.
Actively Engaging Young People
When consulting on activities be user-led - listen to young people's ideas. A multi-agency group should be set up to identify young people at risk to engage with. This should act as a forum for verifying suitable referrals. Such partnership work should be about the person with the right level of responsibility at the meetings, that each agency shares the same aims for the group and a problem-solving approach is adopted.
The activities delivered should be achievement-led - focusing on self esteem and positive activities. Follow-up should be built in to the activities - ad-hoc work has no lasting results. Sometimes different generations can be mixed together - this builds respect for others.
Diverting Young People from Anti-Social Behaviour
Identify activities and alternative sports that can develop a young person's self esteem. Confront in a constructive manner the consequences of their behaviour through debate and use of hard-hitting interactive media. Raise awareness of good behaviour.
