Robbery: The Tipping Point Between Theft and Violence - Hardcover

by Amy Burrell (Author)

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.

Back Jacket

"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

"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."

- Dr. Matthew Tonkin, Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Leicester and co-editor of "Property Crime: Criminological and Psychological Perspectives"

"Amy Burrell's book 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."

- Dr. Laura Hammond, Reader in Forensic Psychology and Director of the Crime and Society Research Centre, Birmingham City University, UK

"Robbery: The Tipping Point Between Theft and Violence" provides an overview of key research and practice relating to personal robbery in the UK. Chapters include discussions of prevalence, victim impact, and offender motivation. Exciting investigative techniques - behavioural crime linkage and profiling - are introduced with a particular focus on how these might be used to help apprehend robbery offenders. There is also a dedicated chapter on policing and prevention. This book provides a comprehensive, one-stop-shop for readers who want to know more about personal robbery. It will be valuable to students, academic researchers, and practitioners to gain an overview of robbery and what can be done about it.

Dr. Amy Burrell has been researching in crime and policing for over 15 years and works as a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests include personal robbery, behavioural crime linkage, group offending, group decision-making, and violent crime.

Author Biography

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.