Arson is a crime committed through the use of incediary materials, methods or substances.
Generally restricted to property damage, the setting of fires for criminal mischief or personal gain harkens back to the apocryphal story of the Roman Emperor Nero strumming his violin whilst Rome burned. Nero then used that as a pretext to rebuild and re-zone the Roman capital.
In some counties, a special circumstance for arson is included for certain capital crimes which result in injury or death of other individuals.
