Arson-associated homicide in Australia: A five year follow-up

Arson homicides are rare, representing only two percent of all homicides in Australia each year. In this study, data was collected from the AIC’s National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) to build on previous research undertaken into arson-associated homicides (Davies & Mouzos 2007) and to provide more detailed analysis of cases and offenders. Over the period 1989 to 2010, there were 123 incidents of arson-associated homicide, involving 170 unique victims and 131 offenders. The majority of incidents (63%) occurred in the victim’s home and more than half (57%) of all victims were male. It was found that there has been a 44 percent increase in the number of incidents in the past decade. It is evident that a considerable proportion of the identified arson homicides involved a high degree of premeditation and planning. These homicides were commonly committed by an offender who was well known to the victim, with over half of the victims (56%) specifically targeted by the offender. This paper therefore provides a valuable insight into the nature of arson homicides and signposts areas for further investigation.

Arson treatment programmes for offenders with disability : a systematic review of the literature

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate treatment for adult fire setters with an intellectual disability, given the specific risks they present, the complexities of criminal proceedings associated with their behaviour, and subsequent rehabilitation. However, the review also took into account programmes for fire setters in the wider population, including those for children and adolescents, given that such research might also inform the development of programmes for offenders with an intellectual disability.

Design/methodology/approach – A systematic review of the literature was undertaken.

Findings – Only four studies which evaluated treatment programmes specifically for arsonists with an intellectual disability were identified. Although each of these studies reported a reduction in fire-setting behaviour following programme completion, all employed relatively weak research designs. An additional 12 studies investigating programmes for arsonists without intellectual disability were also identified. It is concluded that there is a lack of evidence regarding treatment programme outcomes for arsonists with an intellectual disability. The extent to which such programmes can be adapted to suit adult offenders with an intellectual disability is discussed, with recommendations made for the design and evaluation of arson treatment programmes for offenders with intellectual disabilities.

Originality/value – Currently, minimal treatments programs exist for fire setting in offenders with intellectual disability. This review highlights the importance of further research into treatment programs for this specialised population.

Lynch law in Georgia : a six-weeks' record in the center of southern civilization, as faithfully chronicled by the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution : also the full report of Louis P. Le Vin, the Chicago detective sent to investigate the burning of Samuel Hose, the torture and hanging of Elijah Strickland, the colored preacher, and the lynching of nine men for alleged arson /

"June 20, 1899"--P. [1].

Trial of John R. Buzzell, the leader of the Convent rioters, for arson and burglary : committed on the night of the 11th of August, 1834 : by the destruction of the convent on Mount Benedict ...

Mode of access: Internet.

Data sources on the incidence of arson in Illinois /

Mode of access: Internet.

Fighting arson, an update on Illinois' cooperative effort /

Mode of access: Internet.

Trial of John R. Buzzell : before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts for arson and burglary in the Ursuline Convent at Charlestown.

Mode of access: Internet.

Co'chruinneachadh, air a chur r'a chéile air iarrtas Comuinn Ard-Sheanadh Eagluis na h-Alba : arson an sgoilean, air feadh Tìr-mòr agus Eileana na Gaeltachd /

Mode of access: Internet.

County Cork: the experience of members of the establishment whose houses were burned in the IRA arson campaign, 1920-23

Between May 1920 and March 1923, there were seventy-three houses belonging to the County Cork establishment burnt down by IRA and anti-treaty forces. More houses were destroyed by this method in Cork than in any other Irish county in the same timeframe. The establishment were targeted by the IRA for their political, military and social persuasions that were essentially in opposition to the nationalist movement. The motivations behind these burnings is examined, the main reasons being reprisals for actions taken by Crown forces, military reasons, loyalty of house owners to the British government and agrarianism. The geographical distribution of these burnings is also provided to reveal how active individual IRA brigades were that operated within the county. Though there were few areas of the county left unaffected by the occurrence of arson attacks, there were higher concentrations of burnings in some areas. The house burnings in County Cork did not conform to the national pattern of house burnings and the reasons for this are explored. This study argues that the presence of Crown forces in Cork and their implementation of an official reprisal policy in January 1921 escalated military conflict, and arson attacks became a key tactic utilised by IRA forces in response to this policy. The aftermath of house burnings for members of the establishment is revealed through the various compensation committees that were formed after both the War of Independence and Civil War. Key sources for this study included personal papers of both the establishment and military figures, IRA witness statements, local and national newspapers, the 1901 and 1911 Irish Censuses, Colonial Office Papers, compensation claims filed with the British government and Irish Free State, and others from archives throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Copycat firesetting : bridging two research areas

Deliberate firesetting costs our community in destruction to property and lives. Public concern heightens when similar fires occur in a series, raising the specter of copycat firesetting. Difficulties associated with researching copycat crimes in general mean that not a lot is known about copycat firesetting. As an initial step toward filling this research gap, we explore connections between research on copycat crime and research into deliberate firesetting. The intention is to extract salient features from what is known about the phenomena of deliberate firesetting and copycat crime, map them together, and point out shared and unique characteristics. It is argued that a “copycat firesetter” is likely to exist as a distinct subgroup and potentially requiring targeted interventions.

Using environmental criminology theories to compare ‘youth misuse of fire’ across age groups in New South Wales

Youth misuse of fire is a substantive community concern. Despite evidence which indicates youths account for a significant proportion of all deliberately lit fires within Australia, an absence of up-to-date, contextually specific research means the exact scope and magnitude of youth misuse of fire within Australia remains unknown. Despite research suggesting com- monalities exist between youth misuse of fire and juvenile offending more broadly, misuse of fire is rarely explained using criminological theory. In light of this gap, a descriptive analysis of youth misuse of fire within New South Wales was performed. Routine Activity Theory and Crime Pattern Theory were tested to explain differences in misuse of fire across age groups. Results suggest these environmental theories offer useful frameworks for explaining youth misuse of fire in New South Wales. It is argued that the Routine Activity Theory and Crime Pattern Theory can be employed to better inform youth misuse of fire policy and prevention efforts.

Kansallisvaltion teräsmiehestä valtakunnan sovittelijaksi : Poliisikulttuurin psykohistorialliset solmukohdat 1930-1997

From Steely Nation-State Superman to Conciliator of Economical Global Empire – A Psychohistory of Finnish Police Culture 1930-1997 My study concerns the way police culture has changed within the societal changes in Finnish society between 1930 and 1997. The method of my study was psycho-historical and post-structural analysis. The research was conducted by examining the psycho-historical plateaus traceable within Finnish police culture. I made a social diagnosis of the autopoietic relationship between the power-holders of Finnish society and the police (at various levels of hierarchical organization). According to police researcher John P. Crank, police culture should be understood as the cognitive processes behind the actions of the police. Among these processes are the values, beliefs, rituals, customs and advice which standardize their work and the common sense of policemen. According to Crank, police culture is defined by a mindset which thinks, judges and acts according to its evaluations filtered by its own preliminary comprehension. Police culture consists of all the unsaid assumptions of being a policeman, the organizational structures of police, official policies, unofficial ways of behaviour, forms of arrest, procedures of practice and different kinds of training habits, attitudes towards suspects and citizens, and also possible corruption. Police culture channels its members’ feelings and emotions. Crank says that police culture can be seen in how policemen express their feelings. He advises police researchers to ask themselves how it feels to be a member of the police. Ethos has been described as a communal frame for thought that guides one’s actions. According to sociologist Martti Grönfors, the Finnish mentality of the Protestant ethic is accentuated among Finnish policemen. The concept of ethos expresses very well the self-made mentality as an ethical tension which prevails in police work between communal belonging and individual freedom of choice. However, it is significant that it is a matter of the quality of relationships, and that the relationship is always tied to the context of the cultural history of dealing with one’s anxiety. According to criminologist Clifford Shearing, the values of police culture act as subterranean processes of the maintenance of social power in society. Policemen have been called microcosmic mediators, or street corner politicians. Robert Reiner argues that at the level of self-comprehension, policemen disparage the dimension of politics in their work. Reiner points out that all relationships which hold a dimension of power are political. Police culture has also been called a canteen culture. This idea expresses the day-to-day basis of the mentality of taking care of business which policing produces as a necessity for dealing with everyday hardships. According to police researcher Timo Korander, this figurative expression embodies the nature of police culture as a crew culture which is partly hidden from police chiefs who are at a different level. This multitude of standpoints depicts the diversity of police cultures. According to Reiner, one should not see police culture as one monolithic whole; instead one should assess it as the interplay of individuals negotiating with their environment and societal power networks. The cases analyzed formed different plateaus of study. The first plateau was the so-called ‘Rovaniemi arson’ case in the summer of 1930. The second plateau consisted of the examinations of alleged police assaults towards the Communists during the Finnish Continuation War of 1941 to 1944 and the threats that societal change after the war posed to Finnish Society. The third plateau was thematic. Here I investigated how using force towards police clients has changed culturally from the 1930s to the 1980s. The fourth plateau concerned with the material produced by the Security Police detectives traced the interaction between Soviet KGB agents and Finnish politicians during the long 1970s. The fifth plateau of larger changes in Finnish police culture then occurred during the 1980s as an aftermath of the former decade. The last, sixth plateau of changing relationships between policing and the national logic of action can be seen in the murder of two policemen in the autumn of 1997. My study shows that police culture has transformed from a “stone cold” steely fixed identity towards a more relational identity that tries to solve problems by negotiating with clients instead of using excessive force. However, in this process of change there is a traceable paradox in Finnish policing and police culture. On the one hand, policemen have, at the practical level, constructed their policing identity by protecting their inner self in their organizational role at work against the projections of anger and fear in society. On the other hand, however, they have had to safeguard themselves at the emotional level against the predominance of this same organizational role. Because of this dilemma they must simultaneously construct both a distance from their own role as police officers and the role of the police itself. This makes the task of policing susceptible to the political pressures of society. In an era of globalization, and after the heyday of the welfare state, this can produce heightened challenges for Finnish police culture.

Recueil de copies de pièces.

Contient : 1 Contrat de mariage entre Pierre le Cruel, roi de Castille, et Blanche de Bourbon, fille de Pierre Ier, duc de Bourbon. « Actum et datum in capitulo fratrum predicatorum Parisius, die secunda mensis julii anno Domini millesimo trecentesimo quinquagesimo secundo ». Suivi de la confirmation du roi Jean. « Actum in abbatia de Prulleyo, anno Domini millesimo trecentesimo quinquagesimo secundo, die septima mensis julii ». En latin ; 2 « Instructions baillées à Moreau de Wissant, chambellan, Pierre Roger de Lyssac, maistre d'hostel du duc d'Anjou, et Thibaut Hocie, secretaire du roi, envoyez par Loys I, duc d'Anjou, à Henry II, roy de Castille, touchant les royaumes de Majorques et Minorques, comtez de Roussillon et de Cerdaigne, occupez par le roy d'Arragon, avec les responses du roy de Castille ». 1376 ; 3 « Relation de l'ambassade d'Arnaut d'Espagne, seigneur de Montespan, seneschal de Carcassonne, Raymond Bernard le Flamenc et Jehan Forest, envoyez par Loys, duc d'Anjou, à Henry, roy de Castille, et à Jehan I, roy de Portugal, touchant les royaumes de Maillorque et de Minorque, au mois de janvier 1377 ». En latin ; 4 Réponse de LOUIS Ier, duc d'Anjou, aux ambassadeurs de l'infant de Castille, au sujet des affaires de Majorque et Minorque. « 1378 ». En latin ; 5 « Hic continentur qui possunt facere guerram in Catalonia et in regno Majorico ». En provençal ; 6 « Relation de l'ambassade de Migon de Rochefort, seigneur de La Pomarede, et de Guillaume Gayan, conseillers du duc d'Anjou, envoyez en Sardaigne par Loys I, duc d'Anjou, à Hugues, juge d'Arborée, pour faire alliance avec ce prince contre le roy d'Arragon, au mois d'aoust 1378 ». En latin ; 7 « Relation de la mort de Richard [II], roy d'Angleterre, 1399 » ; 8 « Relation de l'ambassade de Loys de Bourbon, comte de Vendosme, Jacques Jouvenel des Ursins, archevesque de Rheims, Guy, comte de Layal, Bertrand de Beauveau, seigneur de Precigny, Guillaume Cousinot, seigneur de Monstreuil, maistre des requestes, et Estienne Chevalier, secretaire du roy, envoyez en Angleterre vers le roy Henry VI, et en leur compagnie les ambassadeurs de Henry IIII, roy d'Espagne, de René, roy de Sicile et de Naples, duc d'Anjou, et de Jehan II, duc d'Alençon, pour traiter la paix, au mois de juillet 1445 » ; 9 « Relation de l'ambassade de GUILLAUME COUSINOT, chevalier, seigneur de Montereuil, conseiller et chambellan du roy, gouverneur de Montpellier, au pape Paul II, touchant le proces de Jean Balue, dit le cardinal d'Angers, et Guillaume de Haraucourt, evesque de Verdun, accusez de crime de leze majesté, au mois d'aoust 1469 » ; 10 « Instructions baillées à Joachim de Velor, seigneur de La Chapelle, chambellan du roy, et Jehan de Nysveven, huissier d'armes, envoyez par le roy Louis XI à Adolphe, duc de Gueldres, comte de Zutphen, pour faire alliance avec ce prince contre Charles, duc de Bourgongne » ; 11 « Instruction de ce que le roy [LOUIS XI] a chargé et ordonné à messrs l'evesque duc de Langres, chancelier de l'ordre, de Crussol, seneschal de Poictou, Mrs Pierre d'Oriole, general, et Jehan Le Boulengier, president à Paris, ses conseillers, faire et besongner devers monseigneur le duc de Bretaigne, où il les envoye presentement... Fait à Amboise, le premier decembre, l'an 1470 » ; 12 « Instructions baillées à Jehan d'Arson, maistre d'hostel du roy, envoyé par le roy Loys XI à Ferdinand d'Arragon, roy de Sicille, touchant le mariage de Charles, dauphin, fils du dit roy Loys, et de Beatrix d'Arragon, fille du dit roy de Sicille » ; 13 « Instructions baillées à Helie de Bordeille, archevesque de Tours, Jehan de La Grolaye-Villiers, evesque de Lombez, depuis cardinal, Jehan de Popaincourt, president au parlement de Paris, Bernard Lauret, president au parlement de Tholose, et Pierre Gruel, president au parlement de Dauphiné, envoyez par le roy Loys XI à François II, duc de Bretagne, touchant le proces de frere Jourdain Faure, dit de Vecours, abbé de S. Jehan d'Angely, et Henry de La Roche, accusez de la mort de Charles de France, duc de Guyenne, frere du roy, 1473 » ; 14 « Instructions baillées à Perceval de Dreux, seigneur de Blancfossé, chambellan du roy, et Pierre Framberg, maistre des requestes, envoyez à Mets par le roy Loys XI, avec les ambassadeurs de Catherine de Gueldres, de l'evesque de Munster et des gens d'eglise, nobles et autres habitans des duché de Gueldres et comté de Zutphen, pour faire alliance contre Maximilian, archiduc d'Autriche, et Marie, duchesse de Bourgongne, sa femme, au mois de janvier 1479 » ; 15 « La Reprise de la Floride, faite par le capitaine Gourgues »