FBI Data Illustrates Criminal Commonalities in Bank Robberies

Bank robberies are typically crimes of opportunity. Someone needs money and they see a commercial bank. So, they go inside and steal it.

“Most bank robbers want to be in and out, and don’t want to be seen,” says Adam M. Hoogland, unit chief, Violent Crime Unit, FBI’s Criminal Investigation Division. “They’re going to take the easiest path possible to get the money.”

In 2019, there were 2,440 incidents of robberies, burglaries, and larcenies targeting financial institutions that were reported to the FBI. After the COVID-19 pandemic, that total figure dropped significantly to 1,740 in 2022, the most recent year that data from the Bureau is available for.

The FBI defines those crime types as:

• Robbery: Taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person—or persons—by force, threat of force or violence, or by putting the victim in fear.
  
  
• Burglary: Unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft.
  
  
• Larceny: Unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another. Larceny does not involve use of force, violence, or fraud.
  
  

Here are some other findings about the state of bank crime in the United States from the FBI’s most recent Bank Crime Statistics Report.

Source: 2022 Bank Crime Statistics Report, FBI; February 2024