Race

Historically, arson was said to be a black on white crime in the South, as a violent manner of protest and revenge for the hundreds of years of slavery. In Arizona, at least, that did not seem to be the case; or if it was, the newspaper did not see fit to report on that aspect of the crime. The arsonists were virtually never given a race in the articles except in two cases.

Race was not really a factor in most of the articles. Race was only mentioned a couple of times and it was always in regard to the arsonist being Mexican. Race was never mentioned with any of the other articles, though in some cases race could be assumed due to names or locations of the crime.