House of Commons - Home Affairs

Select Committee on Home Affairs Second Report

2 Background

4. According to the Theft Act 1968, "a person is guilty of robbery if he steals, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, he uses force on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force".[3] Robbery is an indictable offence, meaning that it can be tried only in the Crown Court. Under 18-year-olds are tried in Youth Courts, but can be committed to the Crown Court if a sentence of two years or more may be warranted (Youth Courts have jurisdiction to impose sentences up to and including two years).

5. Robbery covers a wide range of behaviour. It could be a spur of the moment snatch or an elaborately planned and very violent attack in the course of taking valuable property or large amounts of money. Whatever the circumstances, force will always be used or threatened, and injury or the real risk of injury, whether physical or psychological, will be occasioned. At the bottom end, there may be a very fine line between robbery and theft from the person; and British Crime Survey statistics suggest that 62% of robberies resulted in no injury.

Some recent statistics

6. Robbery is predominantly a young man's crime. Recent Home Office research shows that over 50% of offenders convicted of personal robberies were aged between 16 and 20, and 46% of victims were aged between 11 and 20.[4] 96% of suspects were male, as were 76% of victims. Young black defendants are overrepresented, and in 2003 they formed 52.8% of those dealt with by Youth Offending Teams for robbery.[5] It is a crime predominantly committed in metropolitan areas. In 2004-05, 44% of robberies were recorded by the Metropolitan Police, while nearly two-thirds of all robbery offences were recorded by Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Metropolitan Police force areas.[6]

POLICE RECORDED CRIME

7. The police in England and Wales recorded 88,710 robberies in 2004-05: 7,926 of these were of business property, and 80,784 of personal property. This is the lowest total for five years and a fall of 12% on 2003-04.[7]

BRITISH CRIME SURVEY

8. The British Crime Survey can be argued to give a better indication of trends in crime over time than police recorded crime, because it is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police and in police recording practices. Estimates for 2004-05 suggest that there were 255,000 robberies in England and Wales. This is 25% lower than in 1995 and the lowest since the 1993 survey. Figures indicate a general decrease in robbery over the last decade, with a fall of a quarter since 1995. 62% of robberies resulted in no injury; and the most common types of injuries were: minor bruising/black eye (25%), severe bruising (16%), scratches (16%) and cuts (15%). A hospital stay was required in 1% of cases.[8]

PROSECUTIONS AND CONVICTIONS

9. In 2004 12,404 people were prosecuted for robbery in England and Wales. 35% of them were over 21, and 34% of them were between 15 and 18 years old. 7,514 of these people were convicted: 67% were sentenced to immediate custody and 30% to community sentences (3% were fined or conditionally discharged).[9]

3 Section 8 (1) Back

4 Jonathan Smith, The nature of personal robbery (Home Office Research Study 254, January 2003) Back

5 Commission for Racial Equality statistics (Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System-2004) Back

6 Home Office Statistical Bulletin 11/05 Back

7 ibid. Back

8 ibid. Back