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As a young child I, like many other children was fascinated with fireworks. Every July 4th my family would always put on the best fireworks display. Even to this day I enjoy watching fireworks and lighting them off. For some people it is their job to play with fire, and for others it is an impulsive desire they cannot deny. These people have a problem with the inability to control impulses to set fires. They will do anything to see a fire, be part of a fire, they simply like fire. Firefighters and psychologist label these people to suffer from pyromania. Each year people become innocent victims to arson. They lose property, memories and most importantly lives. Every time a crime is committed we ask the question “why,” and wonder how someone could do something so wrong to another. The following pages will discuss arson and mainly focus in on pyromania. Pyromania is considered to be a psychological disorder, and still is not quite understood to the fullest. To try and understand pyromania we must first look at arson and talk about the motives behind this problem.

Motive is not an element of the offense and need not be proven to obtain a conviction for arson. Evidence of participation by a defendant is required to prove an arson case. Research has found that arson is committed for a number of reasons. The primary motivation for all violent crimes is POWER. Power is defined as the ability or capacity to exercise control over others. When we think about it, unleashing the devastating fury of an uncontrolled fire is a tremendous exercise in power. We break the power motivation into 4 categories. They are:

1. Obtaining power

2. Demonstrating power

3. Maintaining power

4. Acquiring lost power



C. We can further identify motives that meet the individual offender's need for power. These motives are:

1. Vandalism

a. This motive...