Bombing and Arson.

Jamie Sharpe
Robin Surendranath
Criminal Investigation
June 24, 2011

Introduction
One of the oldest known crimes would be arson. It creates a severe threat to human life and cost billions of dollars per year. I will be talking about how the investigation starts the evidence they need to look for, some clues to watch out for incase there is not much evidence to go on and how hard of a case this can truly be. Only few arson cases lead to an arrest. Less than 20 percent of arrests result in convictions (Lyman2008).
Preliminary investigation
The preliminary investigation of arson begins basically like many other crimes, with a thorough investigation of the crime scene.   Both direct and circumstantial evidence can be used to show that the fire was ignited.   The main things to remember with an arson investigation would be Identify the point of origin, Search for flammable liquids, observe the span of the fire, photograph the scene, identify plants or trailers, question witnesses, observe alligatoring. These are the key things when an arson suspect is involved. It’s very important to cover all of these and provide information when starting the preliminary investigation of a suspected arson (Lyman2008).
Various Clues
There are many clues that can indicate that a fire of suspicious origin was arson. Some of these clues are: flames, the color of flames is noteworthy in the early phases of a fire. Smoke, this can be of value in determining what substance was used to start the fire. Size of the fire, this can help set a time frame of when the fire started. Odors, different type of odors can be emitted from certain type of fires that might indicate a specific fire starter such as kerosene, gasoline, and alcohol (Lyman2008).
Evidence
Prosecution of an arson case is time consuming and it requires expertise. Courts have ruled that circumstantial evidence, the most common type of evidence in these cases have the same value as direct evidence. There are many...