ABSTRACT
Whereas the 1970s and 1980s witnessed a steady increased in armed robbery against commercial targets in England and Wales, there has been a dramatic downturn in the number of recorded commercial robberies since the early 1990s. What is significant about this decrease is that it involves nearly all commercial targets to different degrees. As Table 7.1 indicates, the number of robberies in which firearms were reported to have been used peaked in 1993 and thereafter decreased by 50 per cent by 1998–99. The most significant decreases have occurred in relation to banks and building societies, while reductions in the number of robberies against shops, garages and post offices have been slightly less.
