Chapter 10

ARMED ROBBERY

In armed robbery incidents, offenders are armed with a firearm, which they use to achieve compliance. Between 1996 and 1998, robbery with a firearm in South Africa increased by 26.6% from 51 005 to 69 501 reported incidents annually.



In this study, conclusions are drawn from 223 incidents, which comprised 28.3% of the docket sample.



It was found that 67.7% of armed robberies occurred between 08h00 and 20h00. Armed robberies were evenly distributed throughout this period. The majority of armed robberies involved the robbery of a business enterprise. For this reason, they usually occurred within working hours. However, 17.4% of armed robberies occurred between 20h00 and 24h00.



In this sample, 64.2% of armed robberies occurred in the inner city or central business district. There were a number of other significant locations where armed robberies occurred, such as private residential properties (5.5%), public residential spaces (7.3%), places of work or education (6.9%) and transport nodes (8.7%).



Armed robbery is a property crime and, as a result, it was usually the victim of the crime (91.9%) who reported it to the police.



Police detection of armed robberies is low. It was found that 87.7% of all armed robberies are undetected. This implies that there are too few leads to investigate. However, if a firearm is discharged during the incident, the police officer has more information to initiate an investigation. If a bullet or cartridge is discovered on the scene of the crime, this can be sent for ballistic testing. In some cases, ballistic tests can match a firearm to existing records of firearms previously used in South African crimes. A ballistics match, however, has limited use as a result of the comparatively small database of records in existence. A ballistics match could either reveal links to previous crimes in which the firearm had been used, or links to the original owner. As in the rest of the world, police cannot determine ownership merely from ballistic test results (such as through the testing of the bullet or cartridge) as there is no central database on all firearms in South Africa.



In the sample of armed robberies, 87.7% of cases were undetected and in only 5.9%, a guilty verdict was pronounced in one armed robbery. Of the remaining incidents, a fine was imposed (at a value of between R2 000-R2 999), in 11 cases, a prison sentence was imposed (evenly ranging from less than a year to a maximum of 19 years) and in three cases, offenders were acquitted of the crime.



In the 223 armed robberies, 724 people were involved: 455 offenders, 267 victims and two intervening third parties. On average, 3.25 people were involved in each incident. For every one incident, 2.04 offenders and 1.2 victims were involved. The ratio of victims to offenders is 1:1.7. In 97.8% of the incidents, victims and offenders did not know one another.



In the 223 armed robberies, 325 firearms and 21 other weapons were involved. Of the firearms involved, 290 were held by offenders, 34 were held by victims and one was in the possession of a third party intervening in the incident.



It was found that 98.9% of the offenders were male. The race profile of the sample of offenders was as follows: 2.3% white; 4.3% Asian; 14.5% coloured; and 78.7% African. There was insufficient information to provide a valid profile of the age, vocation or employment status of offenders.



It was found that 77.3% of armed robbery victims were male and 22.7% were female. The race profile of victims was as follows: 16.3% white; 36.5% African; 18.3% coloured; and 28.9% Asian. In terms of age, 37.8% were between the ages of 21 to 30 years, while 47.1% were between the ages of 31 to 50 years. Overall, 91.4% of victims were employed.



It was found that 61.6% of offenders had firearms, 33.3% had no weapon and 4.7% had another type of weapon (such as a knife or panga). The majority of offenders carried handguns: 84.7% carried pistols and 14.8% carried revolvers. Only 0.6% of offenders carried shotguns. Five of the offenders used licenced firearms.



It was found that 34 (12.7%) of the 267 victims carried firearms. These victims all carried handguns (24 pistols and 6 revolvers), with the exception of one victim with a shotgun.



In 23.8% of cases, violence was used. In 73.8% of cases, only threats were made and, in 2.3% of cases, no violence or threats were necessary in perpetrating the armed robbery. Of the 267 victims, 46 (17.2%) were injured. Of the 455 offenders, 13 (2.9%) were injured. Two offenders were injured with a firearm. Three victims were injured with a firearm and five victims were killed with a firearm.



In armed robberies, the levels of injury sustained by victims with or without a firearm were similar. However, offenders with firearms were more seriously injured (refer to table 54).



In 61% of cases, items were stolen from victims. An average of 1.4 items were taken. Of all the items stolen, 55.4% of victims lost cash, 10.5% lost jewellery, and 8.5% had a firearm stolen in the armed robbery. Of these 223 armed robberies, 30 firearms leaked into criminal hands. Applying this ratio to the number of armed robberies in 1998 at 69 501 incidents, it can be estimated that 8 103 firearms landed in illegal circulation through armed robberies.

Table 54: Cross-tabulation of the possession of a firearm by victims and offenders and the outcome of injury in armed robberies
	Victim in possession of firearm		Victim not in possession of firearm		Offender in possession of firearm		Offender not in possession of firearm
	Count	%	Count	%	Count	%	Count	%
Injury	7	20.6	30	19.1	11	3.9	0	0
No injury	27	79.4	127	80.9	279	96.1	71	100
Total	34	100	157	100	290	100	71	100

Table 55: Cross-tabulation of victims in possession of a firearm and items stolen in armed robberies
	Victim in possession of firearm		Victim not in possession of firearm
	Count	%	Count	%
No itemsstolen	22	64.7	51	32.5
Items stolen	12	35.3	106	67.5
Total	34	100	157	100

As indicated in table 55, victims in possession of firearms had fewer items stolen than those not in possession of a firearm.