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Bank robbery
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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." By contrast, burgalry is defined as, "unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft." Definitions vary in other countries, however.
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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." By contrast, burgalry is defined as, "unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft." 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 their 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 nations 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.
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).
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.
History
According to the Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia, the first bank robbery in America happened during the night of August 31 or the early morning of September 1, 1798 at the Bank of Pennsylvania at Carpenters' Hall. The vaults were apparently robbed of $162,821, or approximately $1.8 million in 2006 dollars. Because no forced entry evidence existed, authorities assumed it was an "inside" job. Several suspects were immediately imprisoned and prosecuted, but the culprits eventually charged were a man, Isaac Davis, and a partner. Within days of the heist, Davis' partner fell victim to a plague of yellow fever that ravaged Philadelphia that summer.
During the American Civil War, raiders from both Union and Confederate armies robbed banks in enemy-controlled towns. These robberies were at the time regarded as legitimate acts of war, but many of the raiders carried on robbing banks in the post-war era, giving rise to the famous robber gangs of the late 19th century.
Historical Bank Robbers
In the early twentieth century Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks and he was famously reported as answering "Because that's where the money is." This is, in fact, a quote invented by the interviewer to make the story more interesting. Another famous bank robber was John Dillinger, who committed bank robbery crimes in mid-western America. Some considered him a dangerous criminal, while others idolized him as a supposed present-day Robin Hood. He gained this latter reputation (and the nickname "Jackrabbit") for his graceful movements during bank heists, such as leaping over the counter (a movement he supposedly copied from the movies) and many narrow getaways from police. On July 22, 1934 in Chicago, Illinois, Dillinger was cornered by FBI agents in an alley outside of a movie theater, drew a pistol against them, and died at that location of gunshot wounds.
Prevention
Banks have implemented modern security measures, like motion-sensing and high resolution color security cameras, time-locked heavy vault doors, silent alarms, exploding dye packs, and locator devices, To open up the vault quickly, robbers often kidnap the bank manager, but that is not always a successful workaround as banks have often removed the manager's ability to open the vault. Kidnapping also enables the police to lay more charges and thus more jail time for the robbers should they get caught.
The police have new measures at their disposal to catch robbers, such as well-armed SWAT teams, and pursuit cars (often a high-powered vehicle) driven by a trained driver that is capable of keeping pace with getaway cars. Forensic identification techniques have also improved greatly; should a bank robber fire a gun, the police can trace the bullet to the exact firearm using comparative bullet-lead analysis. Martin Kemp, in a BBC documentary, once inquired on the effectiveness of an Uzi in a bank robbery, to which the firearms training instructor joked "that would be thirty pieces of evidence to convict you." The sawed-off shotgun, a common robbery weapon in United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand where handguns are difficult to obtain, are easily concealable but not particularly effective.
While it is likely but not certain that the first time someone robs a bank they will not be caught, it is highly likely that if they continue they will be caught. Few criminals are able to make a successful living out of bank robbery over the long run, since each attempt increases the probability that they will be identified and caught. Bank robberies are still fairly common and are indeed successful, although eventually many bank robbers are found and arrested. A report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation states that, among Category I serious crimes, the arrest rate for bank robbery in 2001 was second only to that of murder. Today most organized crime groups tend to make their money by other means, such as drug trafficking, gambling, loan sharking, identity theft, or online scamming and phishing.
A further factor making bank robbery unattractive for criminals in the United States is the severity with which it is prosecuted. Accounts at all US banks are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a corporation of the federal government, bringing bank robbery under federal jurisdiction and involving the FBI. Federal sentencing guidelines for bank robbery mandate long prison terms, which are usually further enhanced by the use or carrying of loaded firearms, prior criminal convictions, and the absence of parole from the federal prison system. As with any type of robbery, the fact that bank robbery is also inherently a violent crime typically causes corrections administrators to place imprisoned bank robbers in harsher high-security institutions.
See also
External links
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