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This report examines the nature of robbery in England and Wales, based on an examination of over 2,000 crime reports and witness statements across seven police force areas. The report focuses specifically on personal robbery, which accounts for the bulk of recorded robbery and most of the increase in these types of offences in recent years.

Title: The nature of personal robbery
Author: Jonathon Smith
Series: Home Office Research Study 254
Number of pages: 74
Date published: January 2003

Some key points

• There have been marked increases in the level of recorded robbery in recent years. Between April 2001 and March 2002, robbery increased by 28%, or 26,221 offences. This followed a 13% rise the previous year, and a 26% increase the year before that (an increase of 10,877 and 17,441 offences respectively). Personal robbery accounts for the bulk of recorded robbery in England and Wales.
  
  

• Robbery is concentrated in relatively few police force areas, and predominately in urban metropolitan forces. The 10 police forces currently part of the Street Crime Initiative accounted for 83% of all recorded robbery between April 2001 and March 2002. The Metropolitan Police Service dominates this picture, accounting for 44% of all recorded robbery in England and Wales.
  
  

• Robbery, however, is disproportionately concentrated in a smaller number of basic command units (BCUs) when compared to other crime types such as burglary and violent crime in general. Just 7% of BCUs in England and Wales accounted for 42% of recorded robberies between April 2001 and March 2002. This is far in excess of any other crime type.
  
  

• A limited comparison with other jurisdictions suggests that England and Wales now have one of the highest levels of recorded robberies per population, overtaking the United States which has seen a 28% reduction in robbery since 1996 and a 47% reduction since 1990. There were 86 recorded robberies per 100,000 population in Scotland in 2000 compared to 160 in England and Wales.
  
  

• A high proportion of personal robbery involves young persons as victims and offenders. Two out of every five personal robberies involved a victim and an offender under the age of 21 years. Victims over the age of 61 years accounted for just 5% of victims. Just over half of all offenders were aged between 16 and 20 years.
  
  

• Robberies were most commonly committed by two or more persons acting together. Younger male victims were more likely to be targeted by groups of offenders, and females by an offender acting alone.
  
  

• Typically, personal robbery is more likely to occur at night. Half (51%) of all robberies occurred between the hours of 6 p.m. and 2 a.m., and half again (49%) occurred at the weekend.
  
  

• A large number of personal robberies occurred in open public spaces, primarily a street, but also footpaths, alleyways, subways and parks. That said, almost 40% of personal robberies occurred either in or around locations other than a street, such as commercial premises or while the victim was using some form of transport.
  
  

• Victims were typically targeted in one of four different ways by their attackers. These are referred to in the analysis as ‘blitz’, ‘confrontation’, ‘con’ and ‘snatch’ robberies. .A confrontation was the most frequent method by which victims were targeted by suspects, accounting for over a third of all robberies (37%). The blitz approach accounted for a quarter (25%), and a slightly lower proportion (22%) of robberies were preceded by the ‘con’. Snatch robberies accounted for 14%, while victim initiated robberies made up just a small proportion (2%).
  
  

• Weapons were used or displayed in just over a third of personal robberies (33%) and more so where the offender’s approach to the victim was one of confrontation (45%). Snatch robberies rarely involved the use of a weapon, as would be expected. Knives were the most common weapon type, and were used in 21% of personal robberies; guns were used in just 3% of cases.
  
  

• Two out of every 5 personal robberies resulted in injury of some sort to the victim. This was particularly the case in blitz and snatch robberies, and least likely in confrontation robberies. These differences can be explained by the more frequent use of weapons in confrontation robberies, by the fact that blitz robberies are by their nature always violent, by the greater involvement of female victims in snatch robberies, and by female victims’ greater tendency to struggle with their attacker.
  
  

• Over a quarter of mobile phone robberies, representing 12% of all personal robbery in this sample, occurred while the victim was using their phone or had it on display. There is some evidence that these groups and younger victims were specifically targeted for their mobile phones. The analysis of victim statements suggest that involvement in mobile phone robbery is as much to do with the desirability of the handset as a fashion item, as any other possible motivation.

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