Street robbery committed 'for kicks'

Muggings are not just carried out for financial gain, but are often carried out to increase 'street cred' or simply just for 'kicks', a new survey has revealed.

The survey, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and carried out by Professor Trevor Bennett, Director of the Centre for Criminology, University of Glamorgan and Dr Fiona Brookman, interviewed 120 offenders (89 males and 31 females, 10% of whom were black and 12% of whom were of mixed race) with an average age of 26, of whom a third said that they had been arrested 50 times or more.

Overall, 92% had used illegal drugs, while a third said that they were involved in gangs or criminal groups. Over a quarter carried firearms and an additional 35% carried some other weapon, usually a knife.

The survey found that robbery was found to be a pleasurable activity in its own right for some offenders. One offender claimed that they were addicted to it and said: "It weren't even for money. It was more like the buzz you get from doing things... I was more addicted to robbing than I was to drugs."

Another element in the excitement came from overpowering the victim and obtaining dominance, the survey found. It was also suggested that robberies could be prompted by anger and the desire to start a fight, with cash being taken only as an afterthought, while some could be committed as a kind of informal justice in which the offender felt he or she had righted some wrong done to them.

Some kind of drug connection was mentioned in 60% of all robberies reported, while the money was also often used to buy non-essential status-enhancing items.

Professor Bennett said: "The decision to commit street robbery can be explained in part by particular characteristics of the street culture. This finding is important because British research has tended to explain robbery in terms of rational choice and to focus instead on the role of cost-reward calculations. Our research suggests that any explaination must primarily take into account cultural factors associated with life on the street."

(KMcA)