Seminar: Armed Robbery in Australia
| Published date | 01 December 1978 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587801100405 |
| Date | 01 December 1978 |
AUST &NZ JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY (December 1978) 11
(233-240)
SEMINAR: ARMED ROBBERY
IN
AUSTRALIA
233
(1) During the
period
30 May through 3
June
1977, 25 representatives of police
forces, private protection agencies, banks,
bank
employee associations,
researchers, the insurance industry, architecture,
and
victim groups, representing
all States, assembled at the Australian Institute of Criminology to consider
certain aspects of
armed
robbery
in Australia.
(2) Specifically, the group
considered:-
A Worthwile areas of human
based
research relative to the investigation
and
prevention of
armed
robbery.
BDesirability of establishing an
armed
robbery
information service.
CTechnological
hardware
and
building design as a
defence
against
armed
robbery.
(3) Seminar
members
produced
resolutions concerning each of these topics.
They
instructed that
edited
copies of the resolutions
be
distributed to interested
parties.
A -
Human
Based Research Relative to the Investigation
and
Prevention
of
Anned
Robbery
Preamble
(1)
The
offence of
armed
robbery
requires little description
other
than to say
that in real life, particularly from the victim's viewpoint,
armed
robbery
can
produce
not
only
death
or physical injury,
but
also severe anxiety.
(2)
The
Unites States National Commission
On
The
Causes And Prevention
Of
Violence' observed
that
every successful crime is an inducement to further crime
and
that it advertises society's inability to enforce generally
accepted
rules of
conduct. Both overseas
and
local experience indicate there is a real possibility
that
armed
holdups in
urban
areas will
become
more acute in
the
future. It is
obvious
that
greater efforts must
be
made
to prevent the escalation of violent
crime in the community.
(3) Determining realistic research expectations is a difficult task. Past
experience demonstrates that traditional criminology has little to offer the
community in terms of explaining crime or identifying its causes.
(4) Australian experience shews that statistics have
been
used to identify crime
problems but, they usually do little
more
than tell us
what
has
happened
quantitatively.
They
fail to tell us
what
has
happened
qualitatively.
(5) We believe that many
armed
robberies are often
carried
out by
professional criminals
who
use detailed planning
and
sophisticated methods.
They
move from State to State,
and
even internationally.
There
are
also many
offenders who are
not
professional
and
not
migratory
but
who
still present a
danger to the victim. Such offenders also require research
and
planning
attention, although the focus of attention will
be
different from
that
applied to
the professionals.
(6)
Our
assumptions are
made
on the limited information available but,
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