Arson in the context of "Property damage"

A protection racket is a racketeering scheme, usually perpetrated by a criminal organization, that coerces payments on a regular basis from an individual or group in exchange for agreeing to not harm them (or for supposedly "protecting" them). The threat of harm may be indirectly communicated or implied, and it may include violence, robbery, ransacking, arson, vandalism, etc. The payments are called "protection money" or a "protection fee". An organized crime group determines an affordable fee by negotiating with each of its payers to help ensure a consistent and punctual payment. Protection rackets can vary in terms of their levels of sophistication or organization.

The perpetrators of a protection racket may protect vulnerable targets from other dangerous individuals and groups or may simply offer to refrain from themselves carrying out attacks on the targets, and usually both of these forms of protection are implied in the racket. Due to the frequent implication that the racketeers may contribute to harming the target upon failure to pay, the protection racket is generally considered a form of extortion. In some instances, the main potential threat to the target may be caused by the same group that offers to solve it in return for payment, but that fact may sometimes be concealed in order to ensure continual patronage and funding of the crime syndicate by the coerced party. In other cases, depending on the perpetrators' level of influence with authorities and the legality of the business being protected, protection rackets may also offer protection against law enforcement and police involvement, especially if the perpetrators bribe or threaten local law enforcement.

Direct action is a form of activism in which participants use agency—for example economic power or political power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice such as a government's laws or actions or to solve perceived problems.

Direct action may include activities, that can be either violent or nonviolent, targeting people, groups, institutions, actions, or property that its participants deem objectionable. Violent direct action may include political violence, assault, arson, sabotage, and property destruction. Nonviolent direct action may include civil disobedience, sit-ins, strikes, and counter-economics.

A conflagration is a particularly large and destructive fire. In the built environment, this may describe a fire that spreads via structure to structure ignition due to radiant or convective heat, or ember transmission. Conflagrations often damage human life, animal life, health, and/or property. A conflagration can begin accidentally or be intentionally created (arson). A very large fire can produce a firestorm, in which the central column of rising heated air induces strong inward winds, which supply oxygen to the fire. Conflagrations can cause casualties including deaths or injuries from burns, collapse of structures and attempts to escape, and smoke inhalation.

Firefighting is the practice of extinguishing a conflagration, protecting life and property and minimizing damage and injury. One of the goals of fire prevention is to avoid conflagrations. When a conflagration is extinguished, there is often a fire investigation to determine the cause of the fire.

Property crime is a category of crime, usually involving private property, that includes, among other crimes, burglary, larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. Property crime is a crime to obtain money, property, or some other benefit. This may involve force, or the threat of force, in cases like robbery or extortion. Since these crimes are committed in order to enrich the perpetrator they are considered property crimes. Crimes against property are divided into two groups: destroyed property and stolen property. When property is destroyed, it could be called arson or vandalism. Examples of the act of stealing property is robbery or embezzlement.

Property crimes are high-volume crimes, with cash, electronics (e.g. televisions), power tools, cameras, and jewelry often targeted. "Hot products" tend to be items that are concealable, removable, available, valuable, and enjoyable, with an ease of "disposal" being the most important characteristic.

A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, assault, rape and assassination, as well as crimes in which violence is used as a method of coercion or show of force, such as robbery, extortion and terrorism. Violent crimes may, or may not, be committed with weapons. Depending on the jurisdiction, violent crimes may be regarded with varying severities, ranging from harassment, manslaughter, to murder.

Violent criminals who use hostile acts towards others include killers, active shooters, kidnappers, robbers, sex offenders, burglars, arsonists and torturers. Another category of violent criminals are pirates and hijackers of cars or aircraft. Criminal organizations, gangsters and drug cartels frequently employ violent criminals in their group, usually as enforcers or hitmen. Violent criminals often display characteristics such as low anger threshold, disinhibition/absence of impulsivity control, strong dominance/territorial instinct, antisocial personality, psychological/mental health issues and aggressive tendencies which enable them to carry out usually violent acts.

Malice is a legal term that refers to a party's intention to do injury to another party. Malice is either expressed or implied. For example, malice is expressed when there is manifested a deliberate intention to unlawfully take away the life of a human being. Malice is implied when no considerable provocation appears, or when the circumstances attending the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart. Malice, in a legal sense, may be inferred from the evidence and imputed to the defendant, depending on the nature of the case.

In many kinds of cases, malice must be found to exist in order to convict. (For example, malice is an element of the crime of arson in many jurisdictions.) In civil law cases, a finding of malice allows for the award of greater damages, or for punitive damages. The legal concept of malice is most common in Anglo-American law, and in legal systems derived from the English common law system.

Life imprisonment (or life sentence) is any sentence of imprisonment in which the convicted individual will remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term), with or without the possibility of release. Crimes that result in life imprisonment are considered extremely serious and usually violent. Examples of these crimes are murder, torture, terrorism, child abuse resulting in death, rape, espionage, treason, illegal drug trade, human trafficking, severe fraud and financial crimes, aggravated property damage, arson, hate crime, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, theft, piracy, aircraft hijacking, and genocide.

Herostratus, or Eratostratus, was an arsonist who destroyed the Temple of Artemis in an attempt to achieve infamy. Considered an early case of terrorism, his crime prefigured modern terrorist acts, including the assassination of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and the September 11 attacks. His name has become an eponym for someone who commits a criminal act solely to become famous, and the Herostratus syndrome afflicts "people who perpetrate odious attacks for the sake of infamy."

An obscure character, Herostratus burned down the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, in 356 BCE. He was swiftly arrested and tortured to death, during which he confessed his intentions: to gain everlasting fame. The arson prompted the passing of a damnatio memoriae law barring anyone from mentioning his name, although many ancient writers, including one contemporary of the arson, documented him. While Herostratus is thought to have been spurred on by resentment at what he considered societal injustice, his exact motives are not known with any certainty.