ABSTRACT
The introduction and persistence of mythology in fire investigation are an unfortunate part of the history of the discipline and an area that many fire investigators do not like to think about. If an "arson school" decides to use a text in its training courses, hundreds of investigators can be exposed to this false "gospel." Many of the arson indicators which are commonplace assertions in arson prosecutions are deficient for want of any established scientific validity. Much of the mythology about fire investigation was collected by the Aerospace Corporation, under a contract to the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration in a 1977 booklet entitled Arson and Arson Investigation: Survey and Assessment. The absence of the crazing myth in the United Kingdom lends credence to the proposition that it is publication in apparently respectable texts that is responsible for the perpetuation of the mythology of arson investigation.
