Australia has an average of 52,000 suspicious or deliberately lit bushfires a year, costing up to $100 million in insurable losses.

Fire-setters are most likely to be either middle-aged loners or disaffected youth from troubled homes under the age of 21, researchers say. But while more is now known about arsonists, little is known about how to treat them.

Katarina Fritzon​, of the Australian Centre for Arson Research and Treatment, said: "We already have specific behaviour programs for sex offenders, violence offenders and domestic violence offenders; there really is a gap. People who are in prison that set fires, they only get that very generic intervention."

Dr Fritzon, one of only about six psychologists in the country who specialise in arsonists, started  the centre in an effort to close that gap.

The centre runs a treatment program for arsonists, the first of its kind in Australia, which Dr Fritzon wants rolled out to corrective services.

It is a 16-session program that uses cognitive behaviour therapy to address fire-specific psychological vulnerabilities such as inappropriate fire interest, emotional regulation issues and communication problems. So far it has treated six offenders.

Dr Fritzon said that, anecdotally, the offenders had improved, but the treatment was so new that researchers had yet to collate evidence to back a roll-out.

But it is a general lack of funding for research, trials and evaluations in Australia that is crippling programs such as Dr Fritzon's.

"The reality is arson attracts attention every summer ... and because of that seasonal focus that's reflective in a lack of significant government attention," Melbourne forensic psychologist and arson researcher Troy McEwan said.

She pointed to the hurdles faced in rehabilitating offenders. "We can't get funding ... if people want to improve the processes to reduce arson recidivism there's going to have to be some investment."

Monash University psychologist Paul Read said a program had been developed with Victorian police and firefighters similar to Dr Fritzon's for young people, but the funding granted was cut before it could begin.

"It has stopped the ability to start testing the rehabilitation program," Dr Read said.

Dr Read said young people under the age of 21 were responsible for more than half of the deliberately lit fires in Australia. Most arson attacks, he said, were a cry for help.

"They're living in a situation where there's probably family violence, disorganised parental support where the parents themselves are irresponsible with fire or they're potentially abused," he said.

At the other end are the full-blown arsonists. Their profile is more complex, but the experts say they are commonly men over the age of 40 with troubled pasts who can have a grudge or are seeking attention.

The experts are stronger, however, on what an arsonist is not. They say the types of pyromaniacs who want to play the "hero" at a fire scene or light fires to get sexual kicks are extremely rare.

"This sort of psychosexual theory of arsonists being sexually aroused by fire is so rare it's almost a complete myth," Dr Read said

More common though is the act of coming back to the fire scene.

"In certain cases, it absolutely does happen," Dr McEwan said. "If they're interested in fire - if they're interested in the fire services as well - it's the excitement of the sirens coming to the location. They will stick around. That said, anyone who has half a brain know what police are looking for."

• Dr Fritzon spoke to Fairfax Media at the recent Australian Psychological Society Forensic Psychologists Conference, which ran in Sydney.

Arson convictions

• 707 people were charged with arson-related offences in Victoria in 2014.
• There are 306 people in Victoria on parole and court orders for arson offences.
• There are 28 people in Victorian prisons with arson as the major offence for which they were convicted. 
• There are 100 offenders in prison in NSW for arson-related offences and on community orders.

(Source: Corrections Victoria, Corrective Services NSW, Victorian Crime Statistics Agency)