Arsonists and sexual arousal to fire setting: correlation unsupported.

The penile responses of 26 firesetters and 15 nonfiresetters to audiotaped narratives were compared. The categories of narratives were: neutral, heterosexual sexual activity, and firesetting motivated by sexual excitement, general (unspecified) excitement, insurance, revenge, heroism, or power. Responses to all of the categories were of small magnitude, although both the heterosexual activity and the sexual excitement firesetting categories elicited larger responses than the neutral category. There were no significant differences between the firesetters and nonfiresetters to any of the story categories. These data contain no support for the idea that sexual motivation is commonly involved in arson.