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1 Arson (or fire-raising, as it is known in Scotland)[4] is defined as "the malicious burning of the dwelling of another" [5]" in ________.

2 In the ________, the common law elements of arson are often varied in different jurisdictions.

3 [2] It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural ________.

4 The ________ must prove each element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

5 [14] A criminal may be sentenced to death penalty if arson occurred as a method of homicide, as was the recent case in ________ of Raymond Lee Oyler and in Texas of Cameron Willingham.

6 In ________, the term "fire raising" is the equivalent term used instead of arson, but both mean the same.

7 Arson usually describes fires deliberately set to the property of another or to one's own property as to collect ________ compensation.

8 In English law, arson was a common law offence which was recently defined again and codified by the ________.

9 [11] Arson may also be prosecuted as a misdemeanor,[12] "criminal mischief", or "destruction of property."[13] ________ also occurs, if the arson involved a "breaking and entering".

10 Arson[1] is the ________ of intentionally and maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • according to legend, George Washington personally stopped an angry mob from burning St. Philip's Church in the Highlands (pictured)?
  • in 1846, Albert Tirrell became the first to successfully use sleepwalking as a defense for murder and arson in the United States?
  • the force-feeding (pictured) of suffragette, arsonist and hunger-striker Lilian Lenton caused food to enter her lungs and led to public outrage?
  • a recent fire in the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine (traditional Ukrainian church pictured) was set to cover up the theft of 18th-century cassones?
  • English suffragette Olive Wharry was imprisoned in 1913 for an arson attack at Kew Gardens?
  • arson was suspected when the last original boô (pictured), a building where a farmer rested when grazing cattle far from a village, burned down in the Netherlands?
  • arsonists set fire to the Cutts-Madison House (pictured) in Washington, D.C., while Dolley Madison was living there?
  • California's 2007 Santiago Fire (pictured) was started deliberately?
  • "quickfire", a form of arson employed in Scandinavian blood feuds, was punishable by death only if the perpetrator was caught in the act and killed at the scene of the crime?