Bank robbery

Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or the threat of violence. This most commonly refers to robbery of a bank branch as opposed to other bank-owned property, such as a train, armored car, or (historically) stagecoach.

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 or by putting the victim in fear." By contrast, burglary is defined as, "unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft." Bank robbery is defined as entering a bank when it is open and obtaining money from the teller either by using force or the threat of force. Breaking into a bank when it is closed is burglary.

Bank robbery occurs in cities and towns. This concentration is often attributed to there being more branches in urban areas, but the number of bank robberies is higher than the number of branches.

This has advantages both for bank robbers and for the law enforcement. 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 benefit by being able to respond more quickly, and 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 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 bank robbers are caught the same day. In fact, the clearance rate for bank robbery is among the highest of all crimes, at nearly 60%.

The urban locations of the crime also contributes to its repeat victimization 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.

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