Arson: Legal Aspects - Common Law Arson, Statutory Arson, Model Arson Statutes, Bibliography
DENIS BINDER
DAN M. KAHAN
See also ARSON: BEHAVIORAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS.
DENIS BINDER
DAN M. KAHAN
See also ARSON: BEHAVIORAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS.
By the mid-eighteenth century, common law arson was well established as the malicious and willful burning of the house of another by day or by night (Coke, p. 66). The common law viewed arson, like burglary, as a crime against the security of habitation rather than a crime against property. A house was defined for both crimes as the dwelling house of the occupant, in addition to the buildings loca…
Owing to the narrow confines of arson under the common law, statutes were enacted in every state beginning in the early 1800s (as, for example, in the Acts Passed at the First Session of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Orleans. . .. p. 416), greatly expanding the crime to include the criminal burning of almost any type of property. The statutory scheme remained far from uniform through…
The Model Arson Law, proposed in the early 1920s by the National Board of Fire Underwriters, enlarges criminal liability for preliminary behavior by punishing not only what would be attempted arson at common law, but also the preparation of a building for burning. In addition, a separate category is established for the intentional burning of any property insured against loss or damage by fire with…
Acts Passed at the First Session of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Orleans Begun and Held at the Principal in the City of New-Orleans on Monday the Third Day of December in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Four and of the Independence of the United States the Twenty-ninth. Published by Authority New-Orleans. Printed by James N. Bradford, Printer to the Territory, 1…
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