Outcome evaluation of an educational programme for preventing recidivism by adult firesetters
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRPP-06-2021-0030 |
| Published date | 14 March 2022 |
| Date | 14 March 2022 |
| Pages | 196-208 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology |
| Author | Dominic Pearson,Samuel Hayward,Shane Blampied |
Outcome evaluation of an educational
programme for preventing recidivism by
adult firesetters
Dominic Pearson, Samuel Hayward and Shane Blampied
Abstract
Purpose –In intervening to prevent recidivism by adult firesetters, there is a dearth of standardised
interventionsand relatedly of controlled outcome evaluations.Although education is a common firesetter
intervention,it is unclear if this changes behaviour of adults; a researchsituation the current study aimed
to address.
Design/methodology/approach –The rate of actual fire recidivism of participants of a standardised
educational programmewas compared using Cooke’s (1989) equation to expected rates basedon the
firesettinghistory of 93 referrals.
Findings –Results indicated a significant large effect for the difference between the frequencies of
expectedand actual firesetting re-offences.
Research limitations/implications –Limitations of the one-group pretest–posttest design are
discussedwith respect to potential confounds.
Practical implications –This paper adds to the literature on adult firesetter interventions and lends
support to the use of fire education to prevent fire recidivism. Itprovides the first empirically validated
example of a structured education programme for adult firesetters. Of interest to services piloting new
interventionprogrammes, it reports an operationallyefficient methodology for preliminaryevaluation.
Originality/value –To the bestof the authors’ knowledge, this is thefirst reported outcome study of afire
safety education programme for adults. The methodology adopted represents a means of preliminary
evaluationin safety-critical areas where traditionalevaluation designs are infeasible.
Keywords Realistic evaluation, Crime prevention and reduction, Community safety, Firesetting,
Community corrections, Fire safety education, Arson prevention, Reducing recidivism
Paper type Research paper
Fire-related offences destroy lives and threaten public safety. In the year March 2020
in England, the location of the current study, deliberate fires resulted in 56 fire-related
fatalities and 1,025 non-fatal casualties (Home Office, 2021). As in previous years, the
number of deliberate fires, 69,879, represented a large minority (45%) of all fires attended by
Fire and Rescue Services (Home Office, 2021). Aside from the devastating effects on people’s
lives, the annual cost of arson-related insurance claims reaches an estimated £450m (Arson
Prevention Forum, 2017). An important preventative strategy is to intervene with those with a
recent history of the behaviour. However, there is a general absence of evaluated interventions
to prevent recidivism by firesetters [1] in the adult justice system, with attention typically devoted
to juveniles and psychiatric populations (Palmer et al., 2007). This may reflect the thinking that
the majority of deliberate firesetting is by juveniles (Dickens and Sugarman, 2012), yet
individuals sentenced for arson are predominantly adults (87.4% in 2020) (Ministry of Justice,
2021a). Moreover, few of these adults are identified as needing psychiatric treatment (2.1%),
most being given a prison or community sentence (81.8%) (Ministry of Justice, 2021a).
Dominic Pearson and
Samuel Hayward are both
based at the Department of
Psychology, University of
Portsmouth, Portsmouth,
UK. Shane Blampied is
based at Hampshire & Isle
of Wight Fire & Rescue
Service, Eastleigh, UK.
Received 15 June 2021
Revised 3 September 2021
13 January 2022
18 January 2022
Accepted 20 January 2022
The authors would like to
extend sincere thanks to
research assistant Fiona Loy for
her conscientious work in
collating participant data for
this project, and to Terry
Fitzjohn of Hampshire
Constabulary for interrogating
the Risk Management System
for the outcomes. Thank you
also to Damian Watts then
Station Manager with
Hampshire Fire & Rescue
Service, for securing
agreements for data sharing.
PAGE 196 jJOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH, POLICY AND PRAC TICE jVOL. 8 NO. 3 2022, pp. 196-208, ©EmeraldPublishing Limited, ISSN 2056-3841 DOI 10.1108/JCRPP-06-2021-0030
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