Curiosity a key motive for firesetting Robert Crandall National Fire Service Support Systems, Inc. Pittsford, New York Reference is made to “Profiling Arsonists and Their Motives: An Update” by Ellen Emerson-White (Fire Engineering, March 1996). As an investigator with the Rochester (NY) Fire Department and a partner in Fireproof Children, I have been part of a team that has systematically investigated and recorded every fire incident attributable to a juvenile in our city since January 1, 1983. This includes every incident of juvenile arson, fire play, and firesetting and represents a database of more than 3,000 incidents. Although I would not argue that the information in this article is descriptive of the juveniles we profile as troubled or delinquent, it actually represents only a little more than 30 percent of the total number of juveniles involved with fire. The most frequent profile group by far (nearly 70 percent) is that…
