Recorded crime in Scotland: robbery 2008-2009 and 2017-2018

3. Definition of Robbery

The Scottish Crime Recording Standard ( SCRS) ^[3] defines robbery (and assault with intent to rob) as ‘when person(s) has/have been physically assaulted, or verbally threatened or weapons have been presented or used, in order to gain or attempt to gain property’.

The SCRS also states that violence is an essential component of robbery, but the violence may be constructive (i.e. not obvious or stated explicitly, derived from inference) and need not take the form of actual physical assault. It is sufficient if the owner is compelled to submit to the appropriation of his or her property under fear of immediate personal injury. Thus, the mere display of force, whether by weapons, menaces or threats, reasonably calculated to intimidate and overawe, is violence within the meaning of the law.

In addition to this, the SCRS notes that the appropriation of an article, by a sudden snatch or pull, constitutes robbery, when it is accomplished by personal violence.