Because of the recession and rising unemployment, gun-toting robbers in need of quick cash are increasingly turning to banks for relief, FBI officials said.
Although most other crimes are on the decline, bank robberies in the nation are on a near record pace.
In 1990 there were 7,837 bank robberies in the United States, with more than $49 million stolen. That`s 1,146 robberies and nearly $7 million more than in 1989.
”It seems to be a trend,” said FBI Special Agent Barbara Madden.
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”These are obviously desperate people.”
Los Angeles, New York and the San Francisco Bay area led the nation last year in the number of bank robberies.
Madden said the robberies continue despite the fact that arrests are made 80 percent of the time.
Although there is no single reason for the increase, substance abuse and the recession appear to be the main culprits, authorities say.
Jerome Skolnick, a professor of law and sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, said the number of bank robberies also skyrocketed during the 1982 recession.
”It`s an almost perfect correlation between bank robberies and the economy, and that makes sense because bank robbery is not a crime of passion, but one motivated by money,” Skolnick said.
The rash of robberies comes despite the development during the past 20 years of high-technology security, including video cameras, silent alarms and exploding packets of cash.
Dan Addario, the director of investigations for Burns Security International in San Francisco, said the increase is not a result of lax security.
”I don`t see any difference in the amount of security,” Addario said.
”They once asked Willie Sutton (a notorious bank robber who spent 33 years in prison from 1926 to 1969) why he robbed banks, and he said, `That`s where the money is.` People on the wrong side of the law are looking for ways to make quick money.”
Authorities believe that most bank robbers-perhaps as many as 80 percent- have substance-abuse problems and rob banks to support their habits.