Ash and Dust
Arson, as seen by Detroit today.
It was a sad day for Detroit citizens on the morning of November 21st, 2013 when one of Detroit's most popular homes, the Heidelberg Project House, was found burnt to the ground, covered by NBC News. These string of houses have been around for more than twenty-seven years and were started by artist Tyree Guyton. He started to notice more and more abandoned houses and lots around his city and had decided to place found objects on their property to portray an art form. This idea took off and soon some abandoned homes started becoming outdoor art museums. People everywhere started noticing and even the former home of Wilson Pickett had become an art project. Communities came together to place pieces of art around these homes. Sadly, the attacks on the Heidelberg Project Houses have continued with no knowledge as to why. It has been a very emotional situation for artists involved but this city does not give in. Projects continue to thrive and hundreds of citizens have pitched in to help keep these projects going and save them from arson.
Arson has been a major issue in Detroit after the downfall of the countries most popular city during the mid-1900's., but why? Dr Pamela Kulbrash has been in the psychiatry field for over 25 years, working in law enforcement crisis intervention. She has been working out of Tuscan and San Diego alongside patrol officers and Psychiatric emergency response teams. In her article on Officer.com, she talks about what goes on inside an arsonists head. Many motivational factors for arson are excitement, vandalism, and crime concealment. The word pyromania is brought up a lot in cases of arson, although true diagnosis of pyromania is very rare. Fires must be set under an uncontrollable impulse with no previous motive. This mental illness is based around the arousing feelings pyromaniacs get from setting fires. It is found that most arsonists continue to set fires until caught or have found another form of gratification. This is what makes a repeat offender is the idea that it is like a drug addiction. Mental illness plays a huge role in the profile of an arsonists. Rates for intentional fire-setting are higher in people who have been previously diagnosed with diseases like schizophrenia, bipolar, or mental retardation. Detroit, specifically, may have such a high rate of arson due to the fact that many children there grow up with little to no money, lack of proper home life, and schooling. These are major contributing factors to the profile of an arsonist.
Searching through news sites in Detroit has endless stories on arson. One article has gone into detail how data is collected and analyzed. Detroit has been named the countries capital for arson, and the statistics show it. This city has had 3,800-6,000 fires per year, for many years continually. Unfortunately many go un-investigated and unsolved because the arson investigators are unable to further investigations if no fuel or intentional source is found in the wreckage. Of course, we know this is a tricky situation because of course there is not much evidence left to look at as all of it, if not most, is burnt to a crisp. Only about 16-18 percent of suspicious fires lead to warrants. The same article quotes, "the FBI tracks arson in its listings of major crimes, but the agency allows cities to report their own data. Numbers can be depressed, for instance, if fires aren't investigated and conclusively proven as arson. In 2013, for instance, the FBI reported Detroit had 611 arson fires, even though the city's internal records deemed more than 4,000 fires suspicious." This is important in the sense that international data shows an outstandingly smaller number than what actually happens in Detroit. This could be an issue as it may be seen as lesser of a problem, nationally. This city struggles everyday with arson and the problems associated with it. This needs to be an issue that is taken seriously and made aware of.