Chapter Outline

1. Taking. The property taken in a robbery must be taken illegally by the robber.

2. Carry away. Once the element of taking has been satisfied, the robber must then have carried away the property.

3. Personal property. The object of the robbery must be personal property as opposed to real estate or things attached to the land.

4. Another. The property taken must belong to another, not to the accused.

5. The intent to deprive permanently. Robbery is a crime of specific intent and requires that the prosecution establish, in court, that the defendant, at the time of taking the property by force or threat of force from the victim or the victim’s presence, did, in fact, intend to deprive the victim of the use and enjoyment of that property permanently.

6. The use of force, fear, or threat of force. This element of the crime requires that the force or threat of force was directed against the physical safety of the victim rather than his or her social well-being.

1. Robbery is essentially a problem of our large cities.

2. In terms of weapons used, a firearm is used in 40 percent of the incidents.

3. About one-third of all robberies result in a physical injury to the victim.

4. About 60 percent of all robberies are committed by a single offender.

5. There is not a great deal of variation in robberies by month although December is the highest.

6. There is no question that being under the influence and committing robberies are intimately related.

7. Robbery is basically an intraracial crime.

1. The ambush involves virtually no planning and depends almost entirely on the element of surprise.

2. The selective raid is characterized by a minimal amount of casual planning.

3. The planned operation is characterized by larger "scores," no planned use of force, less likelihood of apprehension, and careful planning.

1. Prior to 1990, if an offender used a weapon to confront owners and steal their cars, it was simply classified as a robbery.

2. In Detroit that year the term carjacking was coined to describe the growing numbers of these potentially violent confrontations between offenders and victims.

1. However, though during the decade of the 1990s the ATM robbery rate dropped from one robbery per million transactions during the 1990s to its present one per 3.5 million transactions.

2. The ATM robbery victim is typically a lone woman who is using the machine between 8:00 p.m. and midnight.

1. When robbers are picking a store to rob, the things which are most important to them are: 1) amount of money they can get, 2) a good escape route, 3) inadequate police coverage, 4) an unarmed clerk, 5) lone employees, 6) no video surveillance cameras, and 7) the absence of customers.

1. Truck hijacking is committed by experienced armed robbers acting on inside information.

2. Many truck hijackings happen in or near large cities because it is easy to dispose of the goods there.

3. Hijackers take what is valuable, with a preference with cargos that are easy to dispose of and hard to trace.

1. Physical evidence may not be found.

2. The time of perpetrators at the scene is limited.

3. Witnesses are usually shaken so their information runs from minimal to completely erroneous.

1. Action stereotyping occurs when the officer’s expectations are so set to see one thing that he or she fails to perceive the event accurately.

2. Physical stereotyping is an officer’s expectation that the robber will be of a particular description.

3. In situational stereotyping the officers’ previous experience with and knowledge of a particular location increases their vulnerability.

1. Generating a likeness of suspects. A likeness of the suspect should be created and distributed as rapidly as possible.

1. Preventive measures/what to do before a robbery.

2. Anticipatory strategies/what to do during a robbery.

3. Reactive strategies/what to do after the robbery.