Laws and Court Decisions Related Thesis

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Another case illustrates how important proper investigation can be to the outcome of a case. Various authors cite the case of a fire in a home that killed two children. The children's mother had left them in the care of her boyfriend, who left them alone and left the residence. A small fire was seen burning outside the home after he left. The authors note, "The suspect was arrested and charged with arson and murder. Law enforcement authorities claimed that accelerant was detected on the suspect's clothes and in fire debris sampled outside the dwelling" (Various authors, 2003, p. 127). In fact, the accelerant found outside the home was completely different from that found on the suspect, (which was gasoline), and eventually the charges were dropped. The defendant worked as an automobile mechanic, which explained the presence of gasoline on his clothing. This indicates how a botched investigation can lead to the wrong conclusions that could brand a person for life, and it indicates how important it is to be thorough and diligent in any arson investigation. This is why accurate fire investigation is important to both the public and the authorities. This community spent citizen dollars prosecuting the wrong individual, while the true arsonist went unpunished. That creates a serious situation for the community, because the arsonist could strike again and take more lives.


Accurate fire investigation also helps keep insurance costs down. Insurers want to know the cause of incendiary fires, and they have to pay large insurance claims if the cause is found to be accidental or arson. In some cases, the fires are set intentionally to gain insurance money, and successful arson investigation can help determine the cause of the fire, if it is insurance fraud, and hopefully who is responsible, to keep these kinds of losses from occurring.

In conclusion, incendiary fire investigation is crucial to the public and the authorities because it can lead to successful solving of arsonist crimes, it can lead to greater public safety, and it can help keep buildings losses, insurance costs, and lost jobs to a minimum. Arson is an ongoing problem throughout the country, and understanding how to investigate arson is critical is solving the cases and preventing it from occurring again. Arson is also one of the crimes that often go unsolved, so good arson investigation can lead to more charges and convictions, too. Fire investigation can root out insurance fraud, too, which is extremely important to insurance companies and their claims, so fire investigation helps many areas of business, communities, and the people who live there......

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"Laws And Court Decisions Related", 24 February 2009, Accessed.10 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/laws-court-decisions-related-24555