Fire starting; early intervention and education

Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH)

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19158
For this podcast, we are honoured to be joined by criminologist Joanna Foster. Joanna has managed the London Fire Brigade Firesetters Intervention Scheme and now runs fabtic, a company specialising in fire setting behaviour by children.
Joanna provides insight into how common fire starting is in children, as well as at what age children start setting fires, and whether fire setting is different for young children and teenagers.
Joanna talks us through whether the prevalence, and risk, of fire starting is the same for boys and girls and explores what the evidence shows regarding why children and young people start fires, including why fire can be seen as a form of expression.
Joanna examines how we can identify a child who is at risk of setting fires, and discusses whose job is it to identify these children at risk, as well as what more need to be done to best support families affected by this.
Furthermore, Joanna shares her advice to parents and carers who are worried that their children are at risk of fire setting, or who are already setting fires, as well as her advice to children and young people who set fires. Joanna highlights an important message for policy makers and suggests useful resources for those listening.