The purpose of this paper is to gather epidemiologicalinformation concerning firesetters with intellectual disabilities (ID) in Denmark to identify the assessment and treatment needs of this population and inform further research in this area.,The records held by the Danish Ministry of Justice concerning all firesetters with ID convicted of deliberate firesetting were reviewed for the period January 2001 to December 2010 inclusive. File information was extracted for 83 offenders concerning: demographic and personal characteristics; mental health characteristics; offending behaviour; offence-specific factors; and motives for offending. A sub-group of seven offenders were interviewed to explore some of the themes that emerged from the file review.,The majority of study participants were male and were classified as having mild ID and around 50 per cent had additional mental health problems. Many came from disturbed and deprived backgrounds. Two-thirds had set more than one fire and over 60 per cent had convictions for offences other than firesetting. Alcohol was involved in the firesetting behaviour in a significant proportion of cases (25 per cent). The motives for setting fires were – in descending order – communication (of anger, frustration and distress), fire fascination and vandalism. Interviews with participants indicated the important communicative function of firesetting, the difficulties people had in talking about and acknowledging their firesetting behaviour, and lack of access to targeted interventions.,Interventions for Danish firesetters with ID, as for firesetters with ID elsewhere, need to target the communicative function of this behaviour, along with offenders’ lack of insight and initial reluctance to accept responsibility for their behaviour and associated risks. Adjunctive treatment is required to address the psychiatric comorbidity experienced by many of these offenders, along with the alcohol use/misuse that is associated with many of these offences.,This is the first study concerning nature and needs of firesetters with ID in Denmark.

中文翻译：

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丹麦有智障的消防员

本文的目的是收集有关丹麦智障消防员（ID）的流行病学信息，以确定该人群的评估和治疗需求，并为该领域的进一步研究提供参考。丹麦司法部关于所有消防员的记录在2001年1月至2010年12月（含）期间对具有被定为故意纵火罪的身份证件进行了审查。为83名罪犯提取了档案信息，涉及以下方面：人口统计和个人特征；心理健康特征；冒犯行为；犯罪特定因素；和冒犯的动机。采访了一个由七个罪犯组成的小组，探讨了档案审查中出现的一些主题。大多数研究参与者是男性，被归类为轻度ID，约50％的人还存在其他心理健康问题。许多人来自混乱和被剥夺的背景。三分之二的人纵火不止，有超过60％的人因除火之外的罪行而被定罪。在相当多的案例中（25％），酒精参与了火警行为。引起火灾的动机以降序排列是交流（生气，沮丧和痛苦），迷恋和故意破坏。与参与者的访谈表明，消防具有重要的交流功能，人们在谈论和承认其消防行为方面存在困难，并且缺乏针对性干预措施。对于在其他地方具有ID的消防员，需要针对这种行为的沟通功能，以及犯罪者缺乏洞察力以及最初不愿意为其行为和相关风险承担责任。需要辅助治疗来解决许多犯罪者所经历的精神病合并症，以及与许多犯罪相关的饮酒/滥用。这是丹麦首例有关ID射击者的性质和需求的研究。