Arson Definitions

Question 1

About intent

Answer 1

In a criminal law context there are two specific types of intention in an offence. Firstly there must be an intention to commit the act and secondly, an intention to get a specific result.

Question 2

Deliberate act

Answer 2

Intent means that act or omission must be done deliberately. The act or omission must be more than involuntary or accidental.

Question 3

Intent to produce a result

Answer 3

The second type of intent is an intent to produce a specific result. In this context result means aim, object, or purpose. Simester and Brookbanks

Question 4

Fire

Answer 4

Fire is the result of the process of combustion, a chemical reaction between fuel and oxygen, triggered by heat. For fire to start or continue, each of the three elements - fuel, oxygen and heat - must be present in the correct proportions.

Question 5

Explosive defined

Answer 5

The term explosive is defined by statute.

Section 2 Arms Act 1983
Explosive -

(a) Means any substance or mixture or combination of substances which in its normal state is capable either of decomposition at such rapid rate as to result in an explosion or of producing a pyrotechnic effect; and
(b) Without limiting paragraph (a) of this definition, includes gunpowder, nitroglycerine, dynamite, gun-cotton, blasting powder, fulminate of mercury or of other metals, coloured flares, fog signals, fuses, rockets, percussion caps, detonators, cartridges, and ammunition of all descriptions
(c) Without limiting paragraph (a), (b) of this definition, includes any device, contrivance, or article, which uses any substance or mixture or combination of substances to which paragraph (a) or (b) of this definition applies as an integral part of it for the purposes of producing an explosion or a ballistic or pyrotechnic effect; but does not include a firearm; and
(d) Does not include any firework as defined in section 2 of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996.

Question 6

Property defined

Answer 6

The term property is defined by statute.

Section 2 Crimes Act 1961
Interpretation

Property includes real and personal property, and any estate or interest in any real or personal property, (money, electricity), and any debt, and any thing in action, and any other right or interest.

Question 7

Knows or ought to know

Answer 7

Simester and Brookbanks suggest knowing means knowing or correctly believing. They further premise that the defendant may believe something wrongly, but cannot know something that is false.

Question 8

Danger to life

Answer 8

Life in this context means human life, and the danger must be to the life of someone other than the defendant.

Question 9

Without claim of right defined

Answer 9

Claim of right is defined by statute.

Section 2 Crimes Act 1961
Interpretation

Claim of right, in relation to any act, means a belief [at the time of the act in a proprietary or possessory right in property in relation to which the offence is alleged to have been committed], although that belief may be based on ignorance or mistake of fact or of any matter of law other than the enactment against which the offence is alleged to have been committed.

Claim of right was amended by the Crimes Amendment Act (No.3) 2011. Where previously the defendant required to have a belief that the act was lawful the revised wording of the definition requires that the defendant have, at the time of the act alleged to constitute the offence, a belief in a proprietary or possessory right in the property in relation to which the offence is alleged to have been committed.

Question 10

Immovable property

Answer 10

Although property is defined in section 2 Crimes Act 1961, the term immovable is not defined. In general, it relates to buildings and land and things growing on land, such as forests.

Property will be considered immovable if it is currently fixed in place and unable to be moved, even though it may be possible to make it movable.

Therefore, for example a relocatable building which is currently fixed to foundations is immovable even if, with the expenditure of labour, it could be released from its foundations and transported elsewhere.

Question 11

Vehicle defined

Answer 11

Section 2 Land Transport Act 1998
Interpretation

Vehicle -

(a) Means a contrivance equipped with wheels, tracks, or revolving runners on which it moves or is moved; and
(b) Includes a hovercraft, a skateboard, in-line skates, and roller skates; but
(c) Does not include -
- A perambulator or pushchair;
- A shopping or sporting trundler not propelled by mechanical power;
- A wheelbarrow or hand-trolley;
- A pedestrian-controlled lawnmower;
- A pedestrian-controlled agricultural machine not propelled by mechanical power;
- An article of furniture;
- a wheelchair not propelled by mechanical power;
- any other contrivance specified by the rules not to be a vehicle for the purposes of this definition;
- any rail vehicle.

Question 12

Ship defined

Answer 12

Section 2 Crimes Act 1961
Interpretation

Ship means every description of vessel used in navigation, however propelled; and includes any barge, lighter, dinghy, raft, or like vessel; and also includes any ship belonging to or used as a ship of the armed forces of any country.

Question 13

Aircraft defined

Answer 13

Section 2 Crimes Act 1961
Interpretation

Aircraft has the same meaning as in the Civil Aviation Act 1990; and includes any aircraft for the time being used as an aircraft of any of the armed forces of any country other than New Zealand.

Section 2 Civil Aviation Act 1990
Interpretation

Aircraft means any machine that can derive support in the atmosphere from the reactions of the air otherwise than by the reactions of the air against the surface of the earth.

Question 14

Interest in property

Answer 14

Interest in property is not defined by legislation, however the courts have held that tenancy of a property constitutes an interest in it.

Question 15

Obtain defined

Answer 15

The term obtain is defined by statute.

Section 217 Crimes Act 1961
Interpretation

Obtain, in relation to any person, means obtain or retain for himself or herself or for any other person.

Question 16

Benefit defined

Answer 16

The term benefit is defined in s267(4)

Section 267 Crimes Act 1961
Arson

(4) in this section and in section 269, benefit means any benefit, pecuniary advantage, privilege, property, service, or valuable consideration.

Subsection (1)(c) includes damage to the defendant’s own property if it is done with intent to obtain a benefit - for example, where the defendant burns down his own house intending to make a fraudulent claim on an insurance policy.

Question 17

Cause loss

Answer 17

The term loss is not defined by statute, but in most cases will involve financial detriment to the victim.

Question 18

Person

Answer 18

Legislation provides a wide definition of the term person that incorporates not only real people, but also companies and other organisations.

Section 2 Crimes Act 1961
Interpretation

Person, owner, and other words and expressions of the like kind, include the Crown and any public body or local authority, and any board, society, or company, and any other body of persons, whether incorporated or not, and the inhabitants of the district of any local authority , in relation to such acts and things as it or they are capable of doing or owning:

Question 19

Sufficiently proximate

Answer 19

In assessing proximity, the Court will analyse the defendant’s conduct at the relevant time, in conjunction with evidence of his or her intent based on the circumstances and any steps taken leading up to that point.

This cumulative assessment may allow the Court to infer that the defendant had intended to commit the full offence and had started to do so, even though he or she may still have been several steps removed from the ultimate act

Question 20

Providing explosive etc

Answer 20

Providing explosives to commit an offence
Section 272 Crimes Act 1961

The section’s title is misleading, as it is not limited to the provision of explosives but extends to any dangerous engine, instrument, or thing. While the words of the section could be used in criminal offending, it is suggested the head note and the history of the provision mean that both engine and instrument have a special meaning, in the nature of a device intended to explode or cause fire or emission of noxious things. It is further suggested that the word thing must be read in a restricted but similar fashion.

Question 21

Possession of explosive or device

Answer 21

Providing explosives to commit an offence
Section 272 Crimes Act 1961

The section requires that the defendant makes either the explosive or the engine etc, or have it in his or her possession. As to possession generally, the defendant must intend the explosive or device to be used by another person to commit an offence, but, it is suggested, there is no need for the defendant to be aware either of the identity of the person who will ultimately use the explosive or device, or of the precise nature of the offence to be committed.

Question 22

Crazing of glass

Answer 22

Crazing of glass can be created by the rapid heating of glass and also the rapid cooling of it by the application of water spray in a hot environment. It is not an indication of the use of a flammable liquid without other indicators being present also.