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They come down hard on arson because it risks lives of people in buildings and firefighters, not because it's easy to commit.

Many crimes are easy to commit. The reason that there aren't more fatal stabbings isn't because there's a long prison sentence but because most people are not stabbers.

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I think bsdetector was referring to the expected cost of committing arson. (Probability of Getting Caught) * (Expected repercussions if caught) = (Expected Cost of Crime). bsdetector was saying that it is "easy to get away with" arson i.e. the "probability of getting caught" is low, so the heavy consequences are intended to address the low expected cost of the crime.

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