More than 180 alleged arsonists have been arrested since the start of the bushfire season, with 29 blazes deliberately lit in the Shoalhaven region of southeast NSW in just three months.
The
Shoalhaven fires were lit between July and September last year, with
Kempsey recording 27 deliberately lit fires, NSW Bureau of Crime and
Statistics and Research data shows.
Police arrested 183 people for lighting
bushfires across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania
in the past few months. NSW police data shows 183 people have been
charged or cautioned for bushfire-related offences since November 8, and
24 arrested for deliberately starting bushfires.
Queensland police say 101 people have been picked up for setting fires in the bush, 32 adults and 69 juveniles.
In
Tasmania, where fires have sprung up in the north of the state and
outside Hobart, five were caught setting fire to vegetation. Victoria
reported 43 charged for 2019.
Melbourne University associate professor
Janet Stanley said arsonists were typically young males, aged 12 to 24,
or older men in their 60s.
“There is no
one profile, but generally they seem to have a background of
disadvantage, a traumatic upbringing and often have endured neglect and
abuse as a child,” Professor Stanley said. “They are often kids not
succeeding in school, or they have left school early and are unemployed.
The boundaries between accidentally and purposefully are unclear
because many arsonists don’t plan on causing the catastrophe that
occurs. Often there is not an intention to cause chaos and the penalties
for accidentally lighting a fire are far less than purposefully
lighting a fire.”
Swinburne University
professor James Ogloff said about 50 per cent of bushfires were lit by
firebugs and impending fire seasons excited them. “They’re interested in
seeing fire, interested in setting fire and quite often the information
around how fires burn and accelerate excites them,” the director of the
Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science said."
No comments:
Post a Comment