ABSTRACT
Arson is considered to be an extremely serious crime, with maximum sentences for convicted arsonists ranging from ten years to life in prison, depending on the jurisdiction. Though reports referring to custodial interventions for firesetting offenders are virtually non-existent, a handful of admirable treatment approaches have been described within the available literature for populations of mentally disordered firesetters within psychiatric institutions. Treatment consisted of a suite of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) interventions which included social skills training, graded exposure to holding matches in order to desensitise psychiatric inpatient to firelighting, and coping strategies to help address distressing feelings and life stress. A review of the available literature surrounding the development of treatment programmes for other offender groups highlights three main areas: Risk, Need, and Responsivity - collectively referred to as the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model of offender assessment and treatment. At present, the RNR model is the most widely used model for the assessment and treatment of offenders.
