title: [Adolescent arsonists--psychodynamics, family dynamics and attempt at framing a typology based on 40 expert opinions].
abstract: Psychiatric, psychological and medical data of 40 adolescent firesetters are obtained from a retrospective analysis of expert opinions which have been drawn up by the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Tübingen over a period of 16 years (1981-1997). This analysis mainly focusses on the patients' physical and psychosexual development, their social integration and competence and their family dynamics. It further concentrates on the psychic situation at the time of the offense, the reasons and motives given for firesetting (by the patient and by the expert) and specific psychological test results. According to the results three different characteristic groups can be found: 1st a group of offenders who have set fires to their parents' house, 2nd firesetters being member of the firebrigade, and 3rd an unspecific inhomogeneous group of firesetters.
authors.affiliation: Universität Tübingen, Abteilung Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie im Kindes- und Jugendalter, Osianderstr. 14, 72076 Tübingen.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Klosinski
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Bertsch
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005104:Expert Testimony / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005391:Firesetting Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors