Armed robbery in Australia : 2004 National Armed Robbery Monitoring Program annual report

Maria Borzycki
ISBN 1 921185 03 1 ; ISSN 1326-6004
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2006
(Research and public policy series, no. 69)

3. Armed robbery incidents

• Locations where armed robberies occurred
• Temporal aspects of armed robbery
• Weapons used in armed robbery
• Property taken in armed robbery incidents

In the preceding discussion, the unit of analysis, a record, was a single victim; in the following, a single record refers to a single armed robbery incident. As noted in the introduction, 2004 armed robbery data contained information which permitted armed robbery incidents to be explored. These incidents do not capture all victims described in the 2004 victim dataset and so cannot describe all armed robbery incidents that were reported to police (see also technical appendix). They do, nonetheless, permit the features of armed robberies to be explored, complementing information contained in victim-based recorded crime datasets. Together, these data sources will increase our understanding of armed robberies, potentially assisting in the development of appropriate responses to a variety of armed robbery situations.

A total of 5467 unique incidents were identified in the 2004 NARMP data. The majority of examined incidents (91% or 4978) had only a single associated victim, seven percent had two victims, and the remainder had up to nine separate victims. Victim information was used to create a new variable describing the types of victims involved in incidents, although the validity of this variable is limited (see technical appendix). Table 10 summarises this variable, and illustrates that single individuals were the victims in almost 60 percent of incidents.

Table 10: Types of victims involved in armed robbery incidents, 2004

Victim type	Number	%
One individual	(3208)	59
One organisation	(1770)	32
Multiple individuals	(450)	8
Multiple organisations	(13)	<1
One organisation & one individual	(21)	<1
One organisation & multiple individuals	(4)	<1
Multiple organisations & multiple individuals	(1)	<1
Total	(5467)	100
Note: Percentages do not necessarily total 100 because of rounding.
Source: AIC NARMP 2004 [computer file]

Locations where armed robberies occurred

The types of locations in which incidents occurred are shown in Table 11. Three in every 10 incidents examined occurred on the street or footpath, with retail locations accounting for a further 17 percent. Nearly half of all armed robberies of lone individuals took place in the street, although a high proportion of those involving multiple individuals (35%) also occurred there. In contrast, only four, two and one percent of armed robberies against people on their own occurred in service stations, licensed premises, and newsagents and post offices, respectively.

While only around one in 10 robberies involving single or multiple individuals were in unspecified retail locations, one quarter of those in which individual(s) were robbed in addition to organisations took place in this site. This indicates that although the primary target for robbers is probably the takings or goods associated with the business conducted in that location, robbers nonetheless took advantage of staff and/or customers and also stole their private property.

One quarter of robberies in 2004 involving one organisational and one individual victim occurred in service stations, but none involving an organisational plus multiple individual victims took place there. Earlier research examining robberies against service stations and pharmacies in Australia found that four-fifths of robberies occurring in service stations occurred when only one staff member was on duty (Taylor 2002). Offenders presumably rob certain locations at times when they are likely to encounter a minimum of potential witnesses (e.g. only a single staff member on site). Unlike most retailers, service stations often operate on a 24-hour basis, or at least have extended opening hours, and the 'slow' period overnight when minimal staff are on duty would be the most opportune time for offenders to attack this location.

Table 11: Locations in which different victim types were robbed, as a percentage of victim type, 2004

Location	Victim type							Total number
	single individual	single organisation	>1 individual	>1 organisation	1 organisation + 1 individual	1 organisation + >1 individual	>1 organisation + >1 individual
Residential	9	3	14	0	10	0	0	(397)
Recreational	4	1	9	0	5	0	0	(194)
Transport related	10	<1	6	0	0	0	0	(346)
Open spaces (excluding street & footpath)	1	<1	2	0	0	0	0	(56)
Street & footpath	46	2	35	15	14	25	0	(1663)
Educational, health, religious, justice & other community	1	1	1	0	5	25	0	(55)
Administrative & professional	<1	1	<1	0	0	0	0	(30)
Wholesalers, warehouses, manufacturing & agricultural	<1	1	<1	0	0	0	0	(19)
Retail with no further detail	11	29	10	15	24	25	100	(912)
Banking & financial	1	4	<1	8	5	0	0	(85)
Pharmacies & chemists	1	4	3	8	0	0	0	(115)
Service stations	4	21	2	23	24	0	0	(513)
Licensed premises	2	12	4	15	5	25	0	(309)
Newsagents & post offices(a)	1	4	3	15	5	0	0	(111)
Corner stores, supermarkets & takeaways(a)	6	16	6	0	5	0	0	(514)
Unspecified & other	4	1	5	0	0	0	0	(148)
(a) These new location categories were subsumed by the Retail with no further detail category in 2003 data.
Note: Percentages do not necessarily total 100 because of rounding.
Source: AIC NARMP 2004 [computer file]

Temporal aspects of armed robbery

Consistent with earlier research which reported nearly three-quarters of service station armed robberies occurring between 6.00 pm and 6.00 am (Taylor 2002), 84 percent of service station robberies in 2004 occurred then (see Table 12). Other businesses that tend to operate outside standard hours (licensed premises, and corner stores, supermarkets and takeaways) recorded the majority of armed robberies during night hours, a pattern in keeping with the overall proportions observed regardless of location: 60 percent of armed robberies reported occurred during these night hours. Robberies in community public spaces and residential premises were also more frequently recorded as occurring during the night. Whether this reflects planning (e.g. prior reconnaissance) on the part of offenders, or whether it is simply opportunistic robbery of premises when they are observed to be relatively free of potential witnesses cannot be disentangled in the current data. In contrast, 58 percent of unspecified retail armed robberies occurred between 6.00 am and 6.00 pm and this is presumably linked to the regular opening hours of most retailers.

Data show that the time of day when armed robberies tended to occur varied slightly across the week, although armed robberies were evenly distributed over each day of the week. For example, more than 30 percent of weekend robberies (i.e. Saturday and Sunday) occurred between midnight and 6.00 am, but the equivalent proportion on each weekday was a quarter or less (see Table 13).

Table 12: Time of the day when robberies occurred in various locations, as a percentage of location, 2004

Location	Time category
	Midnight to 2.59 am	3.00 am to 5.59 am	6.00 am to 8.59 am	9.00 am to 11.59 am	Noon to 2.59 pm	3.00 pm to 5.59 pm	6.00 pm to 8.59 pm	9.00 pm to 11.59 pm
Residential	15	7	6	8	9	11	19	24
Recreational	13	6	3	6	15	17	17	24
Transport related	11	6	6	10	12	18	17	20
Open spaces (excluding street & footpath)	20	2	2	5	13	16	18	25
Street & footpath	20	7	4	6	10	11	18	25
Educational, health, religious, justice & other community	7	7	7	15	29	15	9	11
Administrative & professional	7	3	3	17	40	20	7	3
Wholesalers, warehouses, manufacturing & agricultural	11	5	16	11	11	26	16	5
Retail with no further detail	5	3	6	12	18	22	21	13
Banking & financial	1	2	5	31	24	29	7	1
Pharmacies & chemists	0	1	2	12	26	30	21	8
Service stations	25	15	4	3	4	5	21	24
Licensed premises	17	8	3	7	9	11	23	22
Newsagents & post offices(a)	3	16	18	9	25	26	3	0
Corner stores, supermarkets & takeaways(a)	14	7	6	5	10	16	24	18
Unspecified & other	10	7	4	10	19	18	16	16
Total number	(785)	(382)	(264)	(425)	(682)	(809)	(1042)	(1078)
(a) These new location categories were subsumed by the Retail with no further detail category in 2003 data.
Note: Percentages do not necessarily total 100 because of rounding.
Source: AIC NARMP 2004 [computer file]

Table 13 Day of the week and time of day of armed robberies, as a percentage of day of the week, 2004

Time category	Day of the week
	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Midnight to 2.59 am	20	12	12	13	11	14	19
3.00 am to 5.59 am	10	6	7	5	8	6	8
6.00 am to 8.59 am	5	5	5	5	5	5	4
9.00 am to 11.59 am	5	9	9	9	9	7	7
Noon to 2.59 pm	10	15	12	15	12	12	11
3.00 pm to 5.59 pm	14	16	16	14	15	16	13
6.00 pm to 8.59 pm	18	19	20	19	17	21	18
9.00 pm to 11.59 pm	18	17	19	20	23	20	21
(Total number)	(803)	(793)	(747)	(728)	(771)	(802)	(823)
Note: Percentages do not necessarily total 100 because of rounding.
Source: AIC NARMP 2004 [computer file]

Weapons used in armed robbery

Weapon combinations used in the incidents contained in the 2004 NARMP as a function of the types of victims they were used against, are summarised in Table 14. Analysis indicates that:

• over half the incidents involved a knife as the most serious weapon employed, and one in five involved some other weapon. Fifteen percent of armed robberies were with firearms (either alone or in combination with other weapons). Only around one in 20 involved a syringe, and no incidents involved the use of multiple syringes
• very few incidents involved multiple weapon use, with the most common combination being a knife and some other weapon (n=99)
• the relative proportions of weapons used in incidents were similar to proportions seen in the victim-based analysis (see Table 1), but weapons use patterns were not identical across types of victims. Higher proportions of incidents involving only organisational victims involved firearms than incidents involving only lone individuals. No incidents where both organisational and individual victims were robbed involved syringes.

A variable capturing the most serious weapon employed in an incident was created because of the small number of multi-weapon combinations employed. This has been used in the analysis of the types of weapons used in incidents in various locations. The analysis shown in Table 6 examined whether each of the weapon types was distributed evenly amongst the various locations where organisational victims were robbed. This analysis, shown in Table 15, addresses a slightly different question: what was the pattern of weapon use in incidents in each location?

As shown, knives were the most serious weapon used in the majority of robberies in most settings but there were exceptions. For example, firearms were used in at least four out of every 10 armed robberies in financial settings and in licensed premises, and in around one-quarter of robberies against newsagents and post offices. Pharmacy robberies differed slightly insofar as around one-third of incidents involved firearms, around one-third knives, and 13 percent syringes.

Table 14: Weapon combinations used against different victim types, as a percentage of victim type, 2004

Weapon combinations	Victim type(a)						Total
	single individual	single organisation	>1 individual	>1 organisation	1 organisation + 1 individual	1 organisation + >1 individuals	number	%
Firearms
single firearm	9	20	16	38	14	75	717	13
multiple firearms	<1	<1	<1	0	0	0	12	<1
firearm & knife	1	2	1	0	0	0	56	1
firearm & syringe	<1	0	0	0	0	0	1	<1
firearm & other weapon	<1	1	<1	8	0	0	29	1
firearm, knife & other weapon	<1	<1	<1	0	0	0	3	<1
Total number	(323)	(399)	(84)	(6)	(3)	(3)	(818)	15
Knives
single knife	55	49	48	31	71	0	2853	52
multiple knives	<1	0	0	0	0	0	13	<1
knife & syringe	<1	<1	<1	0	0	0	16	<1
knife & other weapon	2	2	3	0	0	0	99	2
knife, syringe & other weapon	<1	0	0	0	0	0	1	<1
Total number	(1827)	(908)	(228)	(4)	(15)	(0)	(2982)	55
Syringes
single syringe	6	5	3	15	0	0	310	6
multiple syringes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
syringe & other weapon	<1	<1	<1	0	0	0	3	<1
Total number	(201)	(95)	(15)	(2)	(0)	(0)	(313)	6
Other weapons
single other weapon	21	14	21	8	10	25	1009	18
multiple other weapons	<1	<1	<1	0	0	0	24	<1
Total number	(684)	(248)	(97)	(1)	(2)	(1)	(1033)	19
No specific weapon types/missing	5	7	6	0	5	0	320	6
(Total number)	(173)	(120)	(26)	(0)	(1)	(0)	(320)
(Grand total number)	(3208)	(1770)	(450)	(13)	(21)	(4)	(5466)
(a) Excludes the single record for multiple organisations plus multiple individual victims, which involved a single knife.
Note: Weapon combination derived from the up the three weapon types listed. Percentages do not necessarily total 100 because of rounding.
Source: AIC NARMP 2004 [computer file]

Table 15: Most serious weapon used in various locations, as a percentage of location, 2004

Location	Weapon					Total number
	Firearm	Knife	Syringe	Other weapon	Non specific or missing
Residential	20	50	3	23	5	(397)
Recreational	5	54	5	31	6	(194)
Transport related	8	58	8	20	5	(346)
Open spaces (excluding street & footpath)	11	55	4	21	9	(56)
Street & footpath	7	59	5	24	5	(1663)
Educational, health, religious, justice & other community	7	58	4	27	4	(55)
Administrative & professional	27	43	3	3	23	(30)
Wholesalers, warehouses, manufacturing & agricultural	42	32	5	16	5	(19)
Retail with no further detail	20	53	10	12	6	(912)
Banking & financial	41	27	4	24	5	(85)
Pharmacies & chemists	31	32	13	9	15	(115)
Service stations	9	65	4	18	4	(513)
Licensed premises	44	31	1	14	9	(309)
Newsagents & post offices(a)	24	54	3	11	8	(111)
Corner stores, supermarkets & takeaways(a)	16	63	4	11	6	(514)
Unspecified & other	12	51	7	27	3	(148)
Total %	15	55	6	19	6
(a) These new location categories were subsumed by the Retail with no further detail category in 2003 data.
Note: Based on the most serious weapon listed in the derived weapon combination, assuming an order of seriousness of firearm, knife, syringe, and other weapon. Percentages do not necessarily total 100 because of rounding.
Source: AIC NARMP 2004 [computer file]

Property taken in armed robbery incidents

The types of weapons used in robberies are not randomly selected by offenders. Prior research into robbery indicates that factors such as weapon availability and the offender's ability to access available weapons, perceived security in targeted locations, a weapon's potential to scare or injure victims, and the type of goods found in different locations (and the type of security this then necessitates), may influence what weapons are used in robberies (Mouzos & Borzycki forthcoming). As was the case with earlier analyses, current data cannot indicate whether offenders deliberately targeted certain types of property, or opportunistically stole all that was accessible during the event, but the types of items taken when viewed in conjunction with other variables can assist in developing an understanding of 'typical' robberies in various locations.

Table 16 shows the types of goods stolen during the incidents examined. Although not all jurisdictions were able to supply this, up to five types of stolen property could be listed for each incident record, therefore categories describe property combinations. The categories are hierarchical, insofar as the first category, cash, refers to all possible property combinations in which cash was listed. The second, negotiable documents (which includes credit cards and ATM cards), refers to all possible combinations including this property type but excluding cash. The third, to all combinations with identity documents but excluding cash and negotiable documents, and so on. Detailed analyses of stolen property combinations (not shown here) were also conducted. When considering all property analyses, data indicate that:

• thirty-seven percent of incidents with property information involved no theft of property, indicating that offenders were not successful - at least in terms of financial gain - in a relatively high proportion of incidents
• forty percent of incidents with property information resulted in the theft of cash, and 10 percent in the theft of electrical equipment (which includes mobile phones) but not cash
• combinatorial analyses show that only cash (i.e. no other property type) was taken in 22 percent of incidents. Electrical equipment alone was taken in nine percent of incidents, and the most common combination of stolen items was cash and electrical equipment, either with or without some other property type (9%)
• forty-one percent of incidents (n=1687) had a single type of stolen property listed
• cash was taken in around 80 percent of incidents in which more than one property type was listed.

Table 16: Type and count of property taken in armed robbery incidents, as a percentage of count, 2004

Property type	Count of stolen property types					Total %
	1	2	3	4	5
Cash	53	78	87	94	97	40
Negotiable documents	1	2	3	3	3	1
Identity documents	<1	<1	1	2	0	<1
Luggage	5	4	5	1	0	3
Electrical equipment	21	12	3	0	0	10
Jewellery	2	<1	<1	0	0	1
Alcohol & other drugs	3	1	1	0	0	2
Weapons	1	0	0	0	0	<1
Personal items not classified elsewhere	4	2	0	0	0	2
Conveyances & accessories	2	0	0	0	0	1
Other property not classified elsewhere	7	0	0	0	0	3
No property stolen	0	0	0	0	0	37
(Total number)(a)	(1687)	(502)	(239)	(135)	(31)	(4087)
(a) The total number includes records annotated as No property stolen.
Note: Derived from the first listed victim for that incident because in the majority of victim records property information was not linked to individual victims but to the incident itself; therefore information should be identical across victims from those jurisdictions. Property type categories are hierarchical: the first category captures all possible property combinations in which cash was listed; the second captures all possible combinations including negotiable documents but excluding cash, and so on. Electrical equipment includes mobile phones and accessories. Percentages do not necessarily total 100 because of rounding.
Source: AIC NARMP 2004 [computer file]

Not surprisingly, the types of property stolen differed with location types, reflecting the types of activities that tend to occur in those locations (see Table 17; this analysis used the same hierarchical category scheme as employed above). Property combinations which included cash made up the largest proportion of property taken from all locations, although in financial settings, licensed premises, newsagents and post offices, and corner stores - settings with a cash turnover - cash combinations were listed for at least eight in 10 robberies for which property data were available. Robberies in pharmacies resulted in the theft of cash (either with or without other property), but one in five resulted in the theft of alcohol and/or drugs excluding cash.

Over one in five robberies in residential, recreational, transport, educational, street, and other open settings involved the theft of electrical equipment (which incorporates mobile phones) excluding cash. Weapons but not cash were taken in a small number of financial institution (n=2) and unspecified retail (n=5) robberies. Data do not allow the differentiation between electrical equipment and weapons as the primary property targeted by offenders. The absence of cash takings hints that offenders may have opportunistically stolen any accessible valuable items; in these instances, weaponry or electrical equipment like mobile phones.

Some jurisdictions were able to supply information regarding the value of stolen items, and data suggest that the average robbery was not lucrative for offenders. Of those incidents for which these data were available (n=1595), the average value of stolen property was $1660. However, the median value was $210, indicating half of robberies with value information netted less than this amount. Eighty-one percent of robberies netted offenders less than $100.

Table 17: Types of property taken in incidents in various locations, as a percentage of location, 2004

Location	Property type											Total number
	Cash	Negotiable documents	ID documents	Luggage	Electrical equip	Jewellery	Alcohol & drugs	Weapons	Personal items nec	Conveyances	Other nec
Residential	62	2	0	4	21	2	1	0	3	1	4	(180)
Recreational	46	3	1	13	27	3	1	1	2	2	2	(107)
Transport related	58	1	1	8	22	0	1	0	4	2	3	(157)
Open spaces (excl street & footpath)	36	0	0	6	45	0	6	0	6	0	0	(33)
Street & footpath	55	3	1	8	23	2	<1	<1	4	2	3	(915)
Educational, health, religious, justice & other community	64	0	0	8	20	0	0	0	4	4	0	(25)
Administrative & professional	69	8	0	0	15	0	0	0	0	8	0	(13)
Wholesalers, warehouses, manufacturing & agricultural	71	0	0	0	14	0	0	0	0	0	14	(7)
Retail with no further detail	71	1	<1	2	10	3	2	1	1	<1	7	(411)
Banking & financial	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	5	(40)
Pharmacies & chemists	60	2	0	0	7	0	20	0	4	0	7	(45)
Service stations	74	2	0	1	6	0	7	0	2	<1	8	(227)
Licensed premises	81	1	0	2	4	1	6	0	1	0	3	(134)
Newsagents & post offices(a)	85	0	0	0	3	0	5	0	5	0	3	(39)
Corner stores, supermarkets & takeaways(a)	80	0	0	0	6	1	7	0	2	0	5	(194)
Unspecified & other	49	1	1	1	28	4	1	0	1	3	7	(67)
(Total number)	(1655)	(45)	(10)	(123)	(427)	(39)	(67)	(9)	(72)	(33)	(114)	(2594)
(a) These new location categories were subsumed by the Retail with no further detail category in 2003 data.
Note: 'nec' refers to not elsewhere classified. Excludes records with missing property information or where incident recorded no property stolen. Percentages do not necessarily total 100 because of rounding.
Source: AIC NARMP 2004 [computer file]

A further examination of the average total value of stolen property, as a function of the most serious type of weapon employed shows that the highest value gains to offenders were in robberies with firearms ($4805; see Table 18). The average values of stolen property in incidents in which knives or syringes were the most serious weapon employed were lower, each at around $900. This pattern was not consistent in all locations however: firearm robberies in corner stores, supermarkets and takeaways, and in pharmacies resulted in lower average value takings than the overall mean value for these locations. This may be a function of low value turnover or deliberate cash reduction practices in these locations. In contrast, firearm robbery in residential settings resulted in an average property value of almost $18,000. Firearm robbery on the street too resulted in a higher average value ($6754) than that for all robberies in this location ($1080). As noted earlier, these robberies have proportionally higher non-stranger victim-offender relationships. It is likely that rather than there being large amounts of cash or other high value items in all residential settings or with all victims on the street, certain individuals in private residences or on the street have been targeted with highly intimidating weapons because offenders knew these targets to be in possession of high value items.

The same table shows that the highest average value robberies - regardless of weapon type - occurred in settings known to hold large cash supplies: licensed premises ($5278) and banking and financial settings ($4424). Robberies with syringes in licensed premises resulted in the highest average property loss to victims ($18,320), although only two incidents contributed to this average, of which one netted offenders less than $750.

Table 18: Average total dollar value of property stolen in robberies using various weapons, in various locations, 2004

Location	Weapon				Total $
	Firearm $	Knife $	Syringe $	Other weapon $
Residential	17,959	1,574	50	3,151	4,217
(n)	(14)	(60)	(3)	(20)	(97)
Recreational	6,000	305	20	444	456
(n)	(1)	(30)	(2)	(13)	(46)
Transport related	2,292	1,246	613	1,930	1,486
(n)	(17)	(84)	(30)	(40)	(154)
Open spaces (excluding street & footpath)	-	402	300	300	372
(n)	(0)	(7)	(1)	(2)	(10)
Street & footpath	6,745	623	673	991	1080
(n)	(25)	(258)	(35)	(109)	(427)
Educational, health, religious, justice & other community	6,000	347	-	663	1,039
(n)	(1)	(5)	(0)	(4)	(10)
Administrative & professional	2,465	0	2,750	-	1,536
(n)	(2)	(2)	(1)	(0)	(5)
Wholesalers, warehouses, manufacturing & agricultural	$$	5,000	-	-	5,000
(n)	(0)	(1)	(0)	(0)	(1)
Retail with no further detail	3,948	1,075	543	1,015	1,588
(n)	(53)	(155)	(33)	(19)	(260)
Banking & financial	5,734	3,723	480	121	4,424
(n)	(15)	(4)	(1)	(3)	(23)
Pharmacies & chemists	800	2,355	800	1,200	1,808
(n)	(5)	(14)	(2)	(1)	(22)
Service stations	757	614	229	545	599
(n)	(17)	(94)	(9)	(13)	(133)
Licensed premises	6,494	4,117	18,320	1,628	5,278
(n)	(24)	(13)	(2)	(11)	(50)
Newsagents & post offices(a)	1,693	1,576	-	1,000	1,602
(n)	(8)	(5)	(0)	(1)	(14)
Corner stores, supermarkets & takeaways(a)	323	384	343	464	381
(n)	(20)	(120)	(3)	(12)	(125)
Unspecified & other	6,110	1,496	160	473	1,813
(n)	(207)	(868)	(106)	(259)	(1,440)
Total average dollars	4,805	901	893	1,246	1,518
(n)	(207)	(868)	(106)	(259)	(1,440)
(a) These new location categories were subsumed by the Retail with no further detail category in 2003 data.
Note: - indicates no records in subcategory. Average derived from information concerning up to 5 listed offenders, for first listed victim in incident.
Source: AIC NARMP 2004 [computer file]