Robbery

This book brings together research on personal robbery from psychology, criminology, group dynamics, and youth justice, to provide a comprehensive resource on this crime type. Although robbery is a pressing issue affecting a very high volume of people, it has been under-researched in recent years. This book explores the motivations of offenders, methods of committing personal robbery and the group dynamics involved. The author discusses behavioural crime linkage as a method to help police forces identify serial offences, as well as how profiling has been used in robbery cases. The author concludes by summarising the policing tactics used to prevent and detect robbery, to show how understanding robbery can help in creating workable initiatives around this crime type.

“An inclusive and informative review of robbery from varied perspectives that will provide a valuable insight to practitioners and scholars.” (Dr. Peter Hall, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Investigations, Coventry University and former Detective Superintendent, Major Investigation Department, Staffordshire Police)

"Robbery is an often-forgotten crime type that has a significant impact on individual victims and society more generally, but there is surprising little research on this topic. This book is, therefore, long overdue and fills an important gap in the literature. What's great about this book is its comprehensive coverage of the subject; from distal motivational factors through to the minutiae of crime scene behaviour and the dynamics of an individual offence, as well as issues relevant to investigation, policing and prevention. As such, this book is valuable to a range of practitioners, researchers and students." (Dr. Matthew Tonkin, Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Leicester and co-editor of “Property crime: Criminological and psychological perspectives”)

“Amy Burrell’s book, exploring key characteristics and themes of robbery, provides comprehensive and authoritative insight into a previously little understood crime and contemporary criminal justice issue. Summarising central debates, key lines of enquiry and significant research in the area, the book provides a thorough and comprehensive overview of what we know about robbery; the crime, who commits it, who is affected by it, and how it might be addressed. New and exciting reconceptualisations of robbery are offered, capturing global insights and covering a range of perspectives. Innovative insights into policing and preventing robbery, including consideration of linking and profiling methods that can support operational activities, showcase a range of practical applications of empirical findings in the area, facilitating a more evidence-based approach to tackling robbery. With its focus on providing a more holistic understanding of robbery – including explorations of themes of both violent and acquisitive criminal behaviour, as well as the relevance of group dynamics in delineating patterns of offending - this book should constitute essential reading for any student of forensic psychology, policing, criminology, or criminal justice. It will also prove an indispensable reference for researchers, as well as an invaluable resource for professionals – especially those working within the criminal justice domains - in helping understand how policy and practice should be tailored to better meet the needs and challenges of dealing with this unique offence.” (Dr. Laura Hammond, Reader in Forensic Psychology and Director of the Crime and Society Research Centre, Birmingham City University, UK)

Dr. Amy Burrell has been researching in crime and policing for over 15 years. She graduated from University of Durham with a degree in Applied Psychology in 2002 before going onto complete an MSc in Forensic Behavioural Science at University of Liverpool the following year. After 4 years working as a Research Fellow for the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science she returned to education to complete a PhD (part time) in Forensic Psychology at the University of Leicester. Her PhD was on behavioural crime linkage (i.e. a method for identifying whether you can identify series of offences committed by the same person based on their crime scene actions) in personal robbery. After completing her PhD in 2013, Amy moved to the University of Birmingham to become the Network Facilitator for the Crime Linkage International Network (C-LINK) (www.crimelinkage.org). She then moved to teaching roles for 6 years – Lecturer in Forensic Psychology at Birmingham City University and Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Forensic Psychology at Coventry University – before returning to research in January 2021. She continues to guest lecture alongside her research role. Amy’s research interests include property crime – in particular personal robbery, behavioural crime linkage, group offending, group decision-making, and violent crime.