The Impact of Robberies on the Victims in Sri Lanka

As a developing country, Sri Lanka faces many problems, and presently they show an increasing trend. Among them, social disparities, terrorism, traffic in illegal narcotics, and crime are predominant. Most researchers feel that crime has increased since the 1970s. Criminologists believe that property crimes are increasing when a country develops. But, in Sri Lanka, robbery as a grave crime has decreased in the course of time though its clarification has changed from time to time. This study draws on the robbery rates prevalent in Sri Lanka during the period of 2003 to 2019, which records a considerable decrease in the number of robberies from 40.64 in 2003 to 13.46 in 2019. The research problem is primarily concerned with the impacts of robbery both as a property crime and a violent crime, and how far it has affected the normal life of the citizens of the country as it stands at 11% of the total number of grave crimes of the country. Therefore, this study was aimed at finding the nature and the impacts of robbery on victims. Further, the study has taken into consideration the causes of robbery as well as the characteristics of perpetrators. Forty-six victims of the robbery were selected to achieve the targets of the study from a convenient sample, adding 4-7 robbers from a police station chosen of selected eight districts. The data were collected by using a semi-structured interview schedule administered to the victims of robbery. The findings revealed that the main targets of 82.6% of robbers were to snatch gold necklaces, ornaments, and purses, mainly from the women who travelled lonely along the roads both in cities and suburbs. The rest of the robbers targeted gems, three-wheelers and mobile phones etc. Of the robbers, 67% were unknown to the victims, while 33% of robbers were known to the victims. As a result of the robbery, 56.5% have suffered from mental pain, 47.8% had physical injuries, and 10.9% of victims have undergone severe economic hardships owing to the loss of their valuables. The traumatic experience of the robbery victims has paved the way to change their regular behaviour patterns so as to prevent thems from revictimization. The study proposes that non-violent resistance of the victims and proper and speedy involvement of the police in target hardening of the robbers would minimize robberies in the country.