少年放火事件の現状と将来

概要

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This paper presents some trends of juvenile firesetters in Japan. We know the juvenile firesetting has not become yet one of great social problems as it is in the United States. But there may be some factors which generate increased arson cases. The following are several characteristic and qualitative changes in juvenile firesetting in the past 10 years. Statistically speaking, about 1 % of all juvenile arsonists are psychoses, and this rate is still decreasing. In contrast, arsonists aged 14 and 15, are increasing. At present, they amount to 45-50 % of all juvenile firesetters. An interesting fact is that more than 50 % of kid accomplices who committed arson were aged 14 and 15. In a socio-economical point of view, juvenile firesetters belong to the lower class more often compared with other kinds of delinquency. In the United States, it is reported that most juvenile firesetters are from the middle class. The trend in Japan is in contrast with that in the United States. The auther has arrived at the following conclusions. Very few young arsonists suffer mental diseases. Most of them are normal through troubled. The younger firesetters may increase in future. They may set fire as accomplices in the crime. In order to understand increasing younger arsonists, analysis of the symbolic meaning of flame and the motivation to set fire will offer more important clue.