The article focuses on the subject of arsons and arsonists in the United States of America. The author presents selected classifications of arsons and characteristics of arsonists, qualifying them to one of the following groups: (i) psychopathology and motives, (ii) characteristic of arsonist; (iii) multifactorial explanations. The work presents division of arsons into pathological and non-pathological, and within the latter also classification by the motive of the arsonist. Subsequently, arsonists’ characteristic is presented based on the available research. The last part of the article is the presentation of multifactorial explana-tions, including Theory of Functional Analysis of H.F. Jackson, Canter and Fritzon classification, R.N. Kocsis classification and division into to the organized and disorganized arsonists.