Arson Case Study

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Recommended: The criminal act of arson

Arson is becoming more and more a significant factor in fire losses. Commercial and industrial buildings are some of the main targets for arsonists. The public perception is that arson is a crime against property rather than the person. The arsonist plan is that the insurer will pay the losses due to arson fires. When people commit arson for financial reasons they actually end up hurting people they did not intend to, like causing the death or injury to an employee. There could be someone still inside the building doing last minute work or even cleaning personnel. It can also have a negative effect on firefighters. People can lose their jobs and it can even pollute the environment. Illegal pollution of the air by smoke and perhaps irrigate
People also start fires because of love. Arson is a common instance of a crime of lust. Another reason is because of mental disorders. Arson is a tool used by gangs for gang initiations and gang violence. Teenagers and people associated with gangs will find abandoned houses and buildings and set them on fire because they think it is amusing or it is used as an initiation tool. Arson has also been used for many hate crimes associated with religion, ethnicity, and race. More specifically, houses of worship have been a main and easy target for racially motivated arsonists. There was an average of 103 burnings of houses of worship spanning from the year 2000 to 2015. More than half of these reported fires of houses of worship involve arson. The Department of Justice enforces a federal statute protecting places of worship from attacks known as the Church Arson Prevention Act. This action was passed in the 1990s in reaction to a harsh rise in religious arsons. This regulation makes it a national crime to target spiritual property because of the faith or race of the people attending worship (Office of Public Affairs, 2017). This term paper will review, analyze, and discuss various research and opinions of experts on the subject of
According to Intentional Fires, Quincy, MA: National Fire Protection Association; between 2010 and 2014, U.S. municipal fire units answered to an average of 261,330 fires each which was found to be deliberately made. These fires included 196,480 outdoor or random fires, 49,690 construction fires, and 13,160 automobile fires. Damages resulting from these fires included 440 civilian losses, 1,310 civilian wounds, and $1 billion in direct property damage. Despite demonstrating 19% of all premeditated fires, structure fires accounted for 87% of civilian deaths, 84% of civilian injuries, and 86% of direct property damage caused by intended fires (Campbell, R. 2017). In the Civilian Fire Injuries in Residential Buildings 2016 report, it states that cooking is the major cause of residential fires that result in injuries, with intentional fires with injuries is only at 5.2% (FEMA,

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