Juvenile firesetting in Turkey: Psychiatric and motivational profiles, and associations with recurrence and forensic outcomes

Juvenile firesetting remains underexamined in non-Western forensic populations. This study investigated the psychiatric, motivational, and familial characteristics of 55 adolescents (mean age = 15.05 years; 92.7% male) referred for court-ordered forensic psychiatric assessment in Turkey between 2019 and 2025. Structured coding captured motivational subtypes, family adversity, psychiatric diagnoses, co-occurring offending, and incident characteristics. Motivations included antisocial/criminal, anger- or revenge-driven, impulsive, curiosity-related, and distress-linked acts. Family adversity-particularly fragmented caregiving and neglect-was common, alongside high rates of conduct disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and depression. Fires most frequently occurred at home or outdoors and were typically ignited with lighters. Recurrence occurred in 14.5% of cases and was more strongly associated with delinquent behavior patterns than with psychiatric diagnoses; co-occurring offending independently predicted recurrence (odds ratio = 7.78, p = 0.046). Findings highlight heterogeneous externalizing pathways shaped by cumulative family adversity and extend the international literature by providing forensic evidence from a non-Western context. Results may inform structured assessment and tailored intervention strategies within juvenile justice systems.