Robbery

Robbery is the taking and carrying away, either with violence or with threats of injury, of a thing which is on the body or in the immediate presence of the person from whom it is taken, under such circumstances that in the absence of violence or threats the act committed would be a theft. In order to constitute the crime, the robber must actually obtain possession of the goods. Further, it is well established that no sudden snatching of property unawares from a person is sufficient to constitute robbery, unless some injury be done to the person, or there be a previous struggle for the possession of the property, or some force used to obtain it. By statutory law in England and Ireland (24 and 25 Vict. chap. 96) the punishment for robbery is imprisonment or penal servitude, varying according to the nature of the violence or threats used. By the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1887 (50 and 51 Vict. chap. 35), the jurisdiction of sheriffs has been extended to robbery and certain other crimes which formerly were cognisable only by the Court of Justiciary. It is, however, to be noted that this extension of jurisdiction does not render bailable crimes, such as robbery, which were not formerly bailable. By the above-mentioned statute it is now competent, under an indictment for robbery, to convict of reset or theft, or attempt to rob. An act of robbery committed upon the high seas constitutes the offence of piracy at common law; and each state is entitled to visit the crime with the penalties which its own laws may determine. In England cases of piracy are now tried at the Central Criminal Court and at the assizes.