When the arrest rate of robbers rose 10 percent, the number of robberies fell 5. During the s, crime rates in New York City dropped dramatically, even more than in the United States as a whole. Violent crime declined by more than 56 percent in the City, compared to about 28 percent in the nation as whole.
Property crimes tumbled by about 65 percent, but fell only 26 percent nationally. Many attribute New York's crime reduction to specific "get-tough" policies carried out by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration. The most prominent of his policy changes was the aggressive policing of lower-level crimes, a policy which has been dubbed the "broken windows" approach to law enforcement. In this view, small disorders lead to larger ones and perhaps even to crime.
As Mr. Guiliani told the press in , "Obviously murder and graffiti are two vastly different crimes. But they are part of the same continuum, and a climate that tolerates one is more likely to tolerate the other. They use misdemeanor arrests as a measure of broken windows policing. Over the s, misdemeanor arrests increased 70 percent in New York City. When arrests for misdemeanors had risen by 10 percent, indicating increased use of the "broken windows" method, robberies dropped 2.
But this decline was not the result of more of those involved in misdemeanors being incapacitated from further crimes by being in prison: prison stays for misdemeanors are short and only 9. And since the BJS data is based on after-the-fact interviews with victims, it cannot provide information about one especially high-profile type of crime: murder.
Property crime in the U. In , the FBI reported a total of 2, BJS tracks a slightly different set of offenses from the FBI, but it finds the same overall patterns, with theft the most common form of property crime in and assault the most common form of violent crime.
Using the BJS statistics, the declines in the violent and property crime rates are even steeper than those reported by the FBI. While perceptions of rising crime at the national level are common, fewer Americans believe crime is up in their own communities. In all 23 Gallup surveys that have included the question since , no more than about half of Americans have said crime is up in their area compared with the year before.
There are some demographic differences in both victimization and offending rates, according to BJS. In its survey of crime victims , BJS found wide differences by age and income when it comes to being the victim of a violent crime.
Younger people and those with lower incomes were far more likely to report being victimized than older and higher-income people. There were no major differences in victimization rates between male and female respondents or between those who identified as White, Black or Hispanic. But the victimization rate among Asian Americans was substantially lower than among other racial and ethnic groups.
When it comes to those who commit crimes, the same BJS survey asks victims about the perceived demographic characteristics of the offenders in the incidents they experienced. In , those who are male, younger people and those who are Black accounted for considerably larger shares of perceived offenders in violent incidents than their respective shares of the U.
There are big differences in violent and property crime rates from state to state and city to city. In , there were more than violent crimes per , residents in Alaska and New Mexico, compared with fewer than per , people in Maine and New Hampshire, according to the FBI. Even in similarly sized cities within the same state, crime rates can vary widely. Oakland and Long Beach, California, had comparable populations in , vs. See also: Despite recent violence, Chicago is far from the U.
Most violent and property crimes in the U. In its annual survey, BJS asks crime victims whether they reported their crime to police or not. In , only In , 44 percent of robberies reported to U. In , the robbery rate was 6. For instance, robbery rates have increased in England and Wales over the last decade, particularly from to The data come from the Uniform Crime Reports. Research has provided a demographic sketch of typical street robbers.
First, street robbery appears to be a young person's crime. Offenders tend to be in their late teens and early 20s. Street robbers search for victims who appear to have money or other valuables—for example, students and tourists. They also target people who appear to be the most vulnerable—like young adults using ATMs alone at night or under the influence of alcohol. Pedestrians who look lost, are using a cell phone, are rummaging through their bags, or are listening to MP3 players might appear less alert and more vulnerable to street robbers than other people.
Overall, street robbery patterns appear to cluster by times, days and locations—for instance, street robberies often occur on weekends, when entertainment districts are busier and associated businesses are open later. With that in mind, below we have summarized how street robberies cluster by times, days and locations.
Overall, most street robberies occur at night. For some groups, however, peak robbery times vary with their routine activity patterns. For instance, most elderly people run errands early in the day. Accordingly, offenders usually rob older people 65 and above in the morning and early afternoons. Yet offenders usually rob young adults during the evening. Drunken bar patrons or migrant workers returning home after work on paydays might also be at high risk during late-night hours due to the absence of effective guardians and the remote locations of some entertainment venues.
In general, most street robberies occur on weekends. In Cincinnati, for example, most street robberies occur late on Saturday evenings and early on Sunday mornings. Street robberies are often concentrated in specific areas, as shown here. Hot spot maps are useful for defining a specific robbery problem. Source: Glendale Arizona Police Department. Most street robberies occur in urban areas. Other frequent robbery locations include parking lots and garages—followed by parks, fields, playgrounds, and areas near public transportation.
Even within a small area, there can be a range of types of street robberies. Here we see different types of weapons used. This might indicate overlapping street robbery problems, instead of a single problem. Hot spots can contain smaller hot spots.
The hot spot in the city scale map, upon close inspection, has several different clusters of street robberies. Small area analysis is usually better than wide area analysis. Finally, street robbers tend to take certain items during a robbery: cash, purses, wallets, credit cards, mobile phones, MP3 players, jewelry, clothing, and other small electronic devices e.
The proliferation of small, portable, expensive electronic items see figure may be linked with street robbery in some locations.
Credit: John Eck. Street robbery is a major source of fear among the public because victims face a sudden threat to life, a loss of control, and an invasion of personal space. For instance, the National Crime Victimization Survey showed that street robbers attacked most victims on their way to or from work, school, shopping, or running errands. The risk of injury and death during an attack further substantiates the public's fear of robbery.
Offenders physically attack approximately half of robbery victims, and about 20 percent require medical attention. The type of weapon used typically distinguishes robbery from robbery-murder. Roughly two-thirds of robbery-murders involve guns, but offenders use guns in less than one-third of robberies. Understanding the factors that contribute to your community's street robbery problem will help you frame your own local analysis questions, determine effectiveness measures, recognize key intervention points, and select appropriate responses.
Local analysis may reveal unique situations, not on this list, that you may need to address. You should base local analysis on the street robbery analysis triangle Figure 1. This triangle is a modification of the widely used problem analysis triangle see www.
It organizes basic factors that contribute to robbery problems. Though no single factor completely accounts for the street robbery problem, the interrelated dynamics among victims , locations , offenders, and routines all contribute to street robbery patterns.
Street robberies occur when motivated offenders encounter suitable victims in an environment that facilitates robbery.
A street robbery problem emerges when victims repeatedly encounter offenders in the same area. In short, a combination of circumstances will lead to a robbery, not any single circumstance. For example, a street robbery is likely to occur when an offender, pressed for cash, spots a drunken person leaving a bar alone, heading toward a poorly lit, isolated location.
A pattern of robberies could occur if offenders notice drunken people taking similar routes after leaving the bar. Different types of routines can change offender, victim and location characteristics, thus altering robbery patterns e. Depending on the specific details of a street robbery problem, the relative importance of each side of the triangle and routines will vary. Addressing any one element in Figure 1 might reduce a problem, but addressing more than one side will better ensure that the robbery problem will decline.
The sections below describe each of the four factors in more detail. Compared with commercial or other types of robberies, street robberies tend to be more opportunistic and occur in a more open and less predictable environment. Though some often consider street robbery a crime of opportunity involving little to no planning, street robbers do engage in decision-making processes. The following sections describe three factors that influence a person's decision to commit street robbery, and the acronym CAP summarizes them.
C ash needs. The immediate need for cash is a major reason why people rob. For instance, 80 out of 81 St. Louis street robbers claimed their immediate need for cash was a primary reason for committing the crime. If victims do not have cash on hand, robbers can take and sell other items to meet cash needs. A ttack methods. The ability to use certain attack methods in particular settings might also affect a person's decision to commit street robbery.
Street robbers use four main attack methods: confrontations, cons, blitzes, and snatch-thefts. For example, confrontations were most common in one U. These methods are not mutually exclusive and can change during the course of the robbery. Each attack method is described below. The offender demands property or possessions at the moment of contact with the victim.
The offender will usually use verbal commands to gain compliance e. Violence might follow if the victim does not comply. The offender uses violence first to gain control over the victim i.
The actual robbery occurs after the offender immobilizes the victim. The offender uses a distraction to catch the victim off guard. For example, an offender might ask someone for the time or directions before attacking.
Using a legitimate distraction enables the robber to gain contact with the victim without causing alarm. This tactic occurs very quickly. No verbal communication occurs between the offender and the victim before the robbery.
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