Study Arsonists are often men whose profession involves fire

Study: Arsonists are often men whose profession involves fire – 20 minutes

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Arsonists are often men whose work involves fire

In serial fires, the suspects are very often people directly or indirectly associated with the fire.

Posted Mar 18, 2023 5:49pm

One of the few scientific papers on arsonists comes from a former prosecutor.

DR

Surprisingly little is known about the arsonists. According to “Switzerland at the weekend”, violent and sex offenders are increasingly being investigated. One of the few scientific papers on arsonists comes from the former Schwyz public prosecutor Lorenz Müller. He investigated 21 cases in Switzerland. And his observation is clear: in one out of five cases, the attacker was a firefighter. The profile type almost exclusively describes a man, mostly Swiss and often plagued by alcohol and drug problems. Arsonists mainly start fires in their neighborhoods. And often they set their own house on fire.

The weekly newspaper then takes up various cases of serial fires. He mentions, for example, those that took place in the water office in the canton of Solothurn. The suspect who was eventually arrested fits the typical profile, apart from his age of 47, as suspects are usually under 25 years old. But at this point, it’s possible that by his youngest age, in his forties, fires were already being started.

In the series of seven fires that recently broke out in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, it was a surveillance camera that confused a suspect. As it turned out, the man was engaged in the assembly of fire protection equipment.

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