In the US, a bank robber steals an average of $7,000 US Dollars (USD), according to 2010 statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In a year, there are around 5,600 bank robberies in the US, with a total of approximately $43 million USD stolen. Law enforcement recovers around 22% of the money stolen in bank robberies, or roughly $8 million USD a year. Less than 4% of bank robberies result in any acts of violence, such as threatening with weapons or taking hostages, as the majority of bank robbers demand the money silently through the use of a note.
More about bank robberies:
- The most common day for a bank to be robbed is on Fridays, followed closely by Tuesdays, with most robberies occurring from 9-11 a.m.
- In 2010, there were 16 bank robbery-related deaths in the US and 13 of those were the perpetrators.
- 96% of bank robbers are male, with African Americans and Caucasian males each equally accounting for 40% of all bank robbers. Over one-third of bank robbers are thought to be regular drug users.
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More Info: fbi.gov
Discussion Comments
I'm not surprised that a lot of bank robbers are male. Robbing banks certainly seems like more of a masculine thing to do, as opposed to women, who are normally seen committing different crimes. However, there was one intriguing bank robber case which involved a woman. Even though she was in a ski mask, the FBI were able to identify her because when viewing the camera footage, they noticed that this "man" kept adjusting something on his chest. They finally came to the conclusion that the robber was female, and that she was adjusting her bra strap.
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