A matched case-control study of convenience store robbery risk factors.

Convenience store clerks have been shown to be at high risk for assault and homicide, mostly owing to robbery or robbery attempts. Although the literature consistently indicates that at least some environmental designs are effective deterrents of robbery, the significance of individual interventions and policies has differed across past studies. To address these issues, a matched case-control study of 400 convenience store robberies in three metropolitan areas of Virginia was conducted. Conditional logistic regression was implemented to evaluate the significance of various environmental designs and other factors possibly related to convenience store robbery. Findings indicate that numerous characteristics of the surrounding environment and population were significantly associated with convenience store robbery. Results also showed that, on a univariate level, most crime prevention factors were significantly associated with a lower risk for robbery. Using a forward selection process, a multivariate model, which included cash handling policy, bullet-resistant shielding, and numerous characteristics of the surrounding area and population, was identified. This study addressed numerous limitations of the previous literature by prospectively collecting extensive data on a large sample of diverse convenience stores and directly addressing the current theory on the robbers' selection of a target store through a matched case-control design.

Convenience store robberies in selected metropolitan areas. Risk factors for employee injury.

Circumstances of injury were abstracted from police reports for 1835 convenience store robberies that occurred during 1992 or 1993 in selected metropolitan areas of seven eastern states. Subset analyses were performed using the data (758 robberies) from four states with relatively complete risk factor information. The purpose of this study was to estimate the risk of injury in a robbery situation for various risk factors. The overall risk of employee robbery-related injury could not be estimated because the probability of robbery is unknown. Of the 1835 robberies, 59% of the total robberies occurred at nighttime (9 p.m. to 3 a.m.), 47% occurred in stores previously robbed in the study period, 63% involved the use of a firearm, and 12% were associated with an injury to at least one employee. In the subset analysis of 758 robberies in four states, the employee probability of injury in a robbery was lower with firearm use compared with no weapon or use of a blunt instrument, and the probability of severe injury (defined as death, or an injury necessitating a trip to a hospital) was lower with a firearm compared with the use of a blunt instrument. However, all five fatalities were firearm-related. Other factors that were associated with a lower probability of employee injury included robbery occurrence in stores that had been robbed multiple times, compared with stores robbed only once; having 1 to 999 dollars stolen, compared with having no money stolen; and the presence of a customer(s) in the store at the time of the robbery. The employee risk of injury was not significantly different between one- (0.106) and multiple-employee (0.111) stores. Similarly, the employee risk of severe injury was not significantly different between one- (0.029) and multiple-employee stores (0.022). We conclude that there are several potential risk factors for employee injury in convenience store robberies, some of which are amenable to interventions. Further research on these factors and their relationship to employee injury is indicated.

Employee injuries and convenience store robberies in selected metropolitan areas.

The number of robberies and robbery-related injuries to employees in convenience stores (C-stores) during 1992 or 1993 were estimated for selected metropolitan areas around Miami and Tampa, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Detroit, Michigan; Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, and Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Arlington, Chesterfield, and Henrico counties, Virginia. Of the 1835 C-store robberies that occurred during 1992 or 1993 in all selected areas (excluding Atlanta and Chicago), there were 12 homicides of C-store employees; 219 nonfatal injuries of C-store employees; 1071 robberies in which there were no injuries but a weapon was used, displayed, or implied toward a C-store employee; and 132 robberies in which there was no injury and no weapon used, but an employee was struck, pushed, or shoved. Corresponding figures for the 238 robberies that occurred in Chicago during January to June 1993, and for which victim employment status was unknown (customer or employee) were three homicides, 53 nonfatal injuries, 120 attacks in which a weapon was used but there was no injury, and 57 attacks in which a person was struck, pushed, or shoved but there was no injury. The proportion of robberies that resulted in a homicide or injury to an employee varied among selected areas from .03 to .25. The proportion of homicides and injuries to an employee was. 14 or higher for target areas in Baltimore (.24), Detroit (.25), and Virginia (.14); the proportion to an employee or customer was .24 in Chicago. The conclusions from these data are that the risk of employee injury in C-store robberies was high in selected metropolitan areas. This underscores the need for effective robbery prevention programs to reduce injury. In addition, further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of prevention programs in the C-store industry and the application of these programs to other retail industries.