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Australia is one of the most fire-prone countries on earth and bushfires can cause widespread devastation. In the right conditions a small fire can quickly become a massive one if not quickly controlled. When weather, topography, vegetation and fuel combine to defeat the best efforts of firefighters, bushfires can cause millions of dollars in damage and claim lives.

All Australian states and territories have enacted offences resulting from the unlawful and malicious use of fire. In each jurisdiction it is an offence to use fire to destroy or damage property. In addition there is a Commonwealth offence of destroying or damaging property.

This Commonwealth provision is not specifically directed at the use of fire to damage property, although fire could certainly be a means of committing the offence.

Understanding why people commit antisocial acts is important for investigating offences and ensuring that perpetrators receive justice and treatment. There is an extensive literature considering the motives behind arson. While there are many different approaches to motives and classification of arson, and terminology can change between writers, taken as a whole the literature suggests the following common motives for arson:

Firesetting by children differs in some fundamental ways from adult firesetting. Understanding some of the factors behind child firesetting can help prevent firesetting behaviour becoming established and may stop more serious fires being lit as the child grows up. Many children play with fire to some extent and most fires started by children are accidents resulting from fireplay or experimentation. A small group of children engage in problematic firesetting and a few go on to light fires regularly.

Most studies of arson have come from the UK and USA and focus on urban settings. Generalising from overseas studies to Australian circumstances can be difficult, and conclusions derived from overseas studies must always be handled cautiously. This is because there may be societal factors influencing the results in ways that invalidate generalisation to other populations. The role of societal factors and culture may be particularly important in relation to bushfires.

'This volume is important beyond the boundaries of Australia. Dr Mukherjee has performed a research coup in being able to pull together the criminal statistical data from all over the country and to provide a model for time-series analysis. The data are rich, the statistical presentation clear, the temporal scope from 1900 to 1976 unusual and fascinating to scholars, legislators, and all others involved in criminal justice.'

This publication was the official journal of the Australian Institute of Criminology.

Vol. 1 No. 1 1989 - Vol. 7 No. 3 1996

The following documents are available only in PDF format.

Volume 7 Number 3 : Autumn 1996 (pdf not available)

The general motivation for this report was to provide the background for a submission by the Federal Office of Road Safety (FORS) on the effectiveness of the enforcement of traffic law to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport Safety (HORSCOTS). This report though has been substantially modified from the original submission to FORS and represents the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the Federal Office of Road Safety.

The chapters of this book were originally published as Research Papers of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

Preface

The involvement of the United Nations in environmental issues has a long history. The 1992 Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro is perhaps the most recent manifestation. However, since the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, which expressed the commitment of the international community to protect and improve the quality of the environment, a number of UN agencies have been active in the field.