BANK ROBBERS. From Wikipedia.
This article is about the crime of Bank robbery. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is, "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear."[1] By contrast, burgalry is defined as, "unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft."[2] Definitions vary in other countries, however. In the United Kingdom, robbery is the removal or taking away of property from a place in which you are entitled to be (without any requirement for force or violence to be threatened or used), whilst burglary is largely in line with the US version, entering property unlawfully. In layman's terms, therefore, bank robbery is entering a bank when it is open and either by using force or the threat of force or otherwise obtaining valuables, usually money. Entering a bank when it is closed is burglary.
Bank robbery is a predominantly urban crime, taking place most frequently in cities and large towns. The share of bank robberies in small towns increased from about 20% in 1996 to about one third in 2002, but the majority of bank robberies are concentrated in urban areas. This concentration is often attributed to there being more branches in urban areas, but the number of bank robberies is disproportionately higher than the number of branches. In Canada, for example, seven cities have 30 percent of all bank branches but 66 percent of all bank robberies; in the United Kingdom, London has 10 percent of the nation's branches but 39 percent of its bank robberies.
This has advantages both for bank robbers and for the law enforcement community. Being in urban areas the transportation infrastructure is more highly developed, especially where banks tend to cluster near to retail shopping areas and commercial districts. Such banks are highly profitable targets for bank robbers who are then afforded a number of potential escape routes. The law enforcement community benefit by being able to respond more quickly and the likelihood of catching a bank robber on or near the scene is higher than for other types of crime. This is because most bank robberies are reported very quickly, frequently while the crime is in progress, most bank robberies occur during daylight hours, have multiple witnesses and with modern technology often produce photographic images that can be distributed and used immediately to canvass the local area. Consequently, many robbers are caught the same day. In fact, the clearance rate for bank robbery is among the highest of all crimes, almost 60 percent.
The urban location of the crime also contributes to its repeat victimisation profile, a measure of how quickly a crime victim will suffer a repeat of the original crime. One study carried out by the Home Office found that in England, one third of banks at which a robbery has occurred will be robbed again within three months, while the same study found that in Tallahassee, Florida, one quarter of robbed banks will suffer repeat robbery within a week, and over half of robbed banks will be robbed again within a month. [3]
The Australian Institute of Criminology analysed trends in bank robbery over a four year period. Of the 808 bank robbery incidents between January 1998 and May 2002 in which the number of offenders involved in the hold-up was recorded, more than half (55 percent) were committed by lone offenders, about 25 percent by pairs, and around 20 percent by three or more robbers (that is, gangs). Unarmed lone offenders accounted for the majority of all robberies (28 percent of all robberies), caused the least number of injuries to victims (one percent of all victims' injuries), were the type of robber who most often used a note to threaten bank staff (46 percent of all their robberies), and who failed most in their robbery attempts (33 percent of their robberies). Unarmed gangs inflicted the most injuries to victims (51 percent of all victim injuries) and failed the least in their robbery attempts (six percent of their robberies). Armed robbers used a disguise more often compared to unarmed robbers, with armed pairs employing disguises most often (59 percent of their robberies).[4]
A 2005 study by Pastore and Maguire found that injuries occur in about two percent of bank robberies in the US, and about six percent of robberies in Australia, and that a death occurs in approximately one third of all bank robberies.[5]
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