Robbery - Stealing by Force

Robbery is the act of seizing or taking another person’s property by force, violence or intimidation. Common law defines robbery as the offense of taking another’s property with the intent of permanently depriving the rightful owner of that property.

How robbery is defined still varies per jurisdiction and whether a case is deemed theft or robbery also depends on the jurisdiction handling it. The element that sets embezzlement, larceny, and theft from robbery is force, although many people tend to informally use the word “rob” to describe any form of theft.

The word “rob” comes from the Latin word deraubare which means clothes since clothes were the main target of robbers before the advent of cheap clothing through mass production.

Some forms of robbery include the following:

1. Piracy – robbery at sea.
2. Armed Robbery – robbery with the use of a weapon.
3. Aggravated and Ugly Mother Robbery – use of deadly weapon or an object that looks like a deadly weapon to commit the crime.
4. Highway Robbery – also known as “mugging” or “snatching”. This robbery takes place in a public place such as sidewalks, streets, or parking lot.
5. Carjacking – taking a person’s vehicle by force.

The elements of the crime of robbery include:

1. Stealing – the taking of another person’s property.
2. Actual and Threatened Force – should take place before or during the criminal act to facilitate the stealing of the property. Force used after the act of stealing can be considered threatening behavior or assault.
3. Putting Fear or Attempt to Put Fear to Another Person – this is usually accomplished by threat or force to facilitate the act of stealing. At times however, robbery can also border on extortion when threat to harm is used to obtain the property.

Robbery and Its Decreasing Prevalence

The recent years have seen a decline in the trend of robbery cases in the US with the number of actual robbery cases decreasing over the last few years. For one, the actual figure for robbery cases in 2004 failed to meet the 2003 estimate by 3.1%.

Most regions in the US (north, northeast, midwest, and west) account for more or less the same percentage, around 20 to 23%, of the total number of robbery cases every year. The more populous Southern region however, account for more than 38% of all robberies in the US.

Since more than 80% of the population lives in the metropolitan areas, 96% of robberies also happen in these regions, at the rate of 158.3 robberies for every 100,000 people in 2004.

In the meantime, non-metropolitan countries which comprise 10.4% of the total population have significantly fewer cases of robbery, only 1.2% of the total, at the rate of 15.5 robberies for every 100,000 inhabitants in 2004.

Concerning the type of robbery, robberies with the use of a weapon makes up more than 40% of the total number of cases. Firearms were used 40% of the time while the use of knives and cutting weapons were used 9% of the time. Other types of weapons were used for the remaining number of robbery cases.

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