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.

Body self-image and homosexuality.

Adult males (N = 56) who differed in sexual orientation and preference were administered a self-report inventory that concerned their memory of the adolescent period of life. Six factors were assessed: Body self-concept, body weight problems, sports activities, parental relationships, interpersonal self-concept, and general self-concept. The results showed that homosexual males reported that they were significantly less adjusted during adolescence than heterosexual males.

[Statistical and dynamic analysis of crime in relation to primary dimensions in various countries]. / Un'analisi statica e dinamica del reato in relazione alle "dimensioni primarie" di alcuni paesi

The examination of the effects of social change on crime has experienced a revival of interest in the past decade. With the increasing availability of cross-national data such analyses are being done in a comparative perspective. The current effort is designed to examine the relationship between three variables which have been shown to be empirically and theoretically pertinent to the study of social change and crime indices. Specifically, the variables of population, gross national product per capita and political orientation are regressed on the homicide rates, property crime rates and total crime rates for a number of countries. This analysis is done statically for 1965 and dynamically, for the change in the variables from 1960 to 1965. The data for the independent variables were acquired from the World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators, Second Edition. The source of the dependent variables was the International Crime Statistics published by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). The problems with such data are recongized and discussed. The results indicate that in the static analysis the three variables explain a substantial amount of the variance in property crime rates and total crime rates whereas they do not explain much of the variance in the homicide rate. Gross national product per capita contributes the most to the explained variance in all the analyses. A theoretical perspective combining the ideas incorporated in control theory and in environmental opportunity theory was employed to account for the results. The results of the dynamic analyses parallel those of the static analyses, with the exception of the equation employing the total crime rate at the dependent variable. The total variance explained in this equation was significantly lower than in the static analysis for the total crime rate. Durkheim's notions of the functions of crime and the expected stability in crime rates were offered as an explanation for this finding.