the macho persona can impede on effective intervention. Talking about one’s problems may be seen as a weak characteristic among officers. Also, police officers are often times not trusting toward others outside the arena of law enforcement, and sometimes this distrust is felt within the boundaries of law enforcement. These factors can lead to officers not being willing or wanting to seek help for themselves. Therefore, effective intervention may be road blocked. 7). What is the difference between expressive arsonists and instrumental arsonists? There are two types of expressive arsonists: 1) one with motivated feelings of suicide (internal) and 2) and the other acting out on symbolic buildings (external). There are two types of instrumental arsonists: 1) one motivated by personal indulgence or revenge (internal) and 2) the other with an object focus (external). It has been suggested through a recent study (Canter et al., 1998) that expressive person arsonists’ acts are associated with an attempt to relieve internal psychological turmoil and is similar to suicidal behavior or, more usually, attempted suicide where fires are set in or around the home and result in attention from family, friends, and neighbors. The instrumental person’s act is usually characterized by a desire to resolve interpersonal conflict by setting fire to a building in a retaliative way, external to the arsonist. This offence often involves prior threats to the victim plus a specific behavioral trigger just prior to the attack. The expressive arsonist’s object of target is on very public buildings affording as much public attention as possible and thus increases psychological relief for the fire setter. Emotionally charged ‘non-specific’ triggers are common prior to the event. These offenders will often return to the scene and observe and participate in the response. The Instrumental object of the instrumental fire setter is gen...
