Gun crime in Brent: Evidence about armed commercial robbery with firearms
20 September 2005
Gavin Hales, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth presented at the IPB Focus on Robbery™ Symposium on his research on gun crime in the London Borough of Brent.
Gavin presented evidence from recent research on gun crime in the London Borough of Brent, focusing in his presentation on armed commercial robbery with firearms. Having analysed five years of police crime data, he demonstrated the importance of demographic factors such as age, gender and ethnicity in relation to both offending and victimisation. For example, he showed how differences in target (victim) selection appear to result in different detection rates for white and black offenders; the former appear to disproportionately target better protected business, making it more likely that they will be arrested by the police. Further evidence highlighted important differences between personal and commercial armed robbery, suggesting a ‘career progression’ from the former to the latter.
On firearms, Gavin presented evidence based on interviews with convicted gun crime offenders. These highlighted the importance of unloaded and imitation firearms in armed robbery offences, with offenders intending to use guns to intimidate rather than injure. It was suggested that the availability of highly realistic imitation firearms, including toys, has increased access to weapons that are sufficiently credible to enable robbery offences to be carried out by individuals who otherwise lack the necessary resources or criminal contacts to obtain real guns. It was further suggested that the Home Office’s proposed ban on ‘realistic imitation firearms’, contained in the Violent Crime Reduction Bill (2005), should constrain access to robbery enabling weapons, reducing the incidence of armed robberies with firearms, particularly among younger and less organised criminals.
For more information contact Gavin Hales. Visit the University of Portsmouth website to download a copy of the research report “Gun Crime in Brent” (1.1 MB pdf format).
Visit the Focus on Robbery™ section of this site for information on all the topics covered by the 2005 Symposium.
For more information about the Focus on Robbery Partnership, email the IBP team, or call +44 (0)1428 641399.
|
