Mugging

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Mugger redirects here—mugger may also refer to Mugger Crocodile

Mugging is a type of robbery, in which the perpetrator (the mugger) accosts the victim in a public place, such as a street or parking lot, and demands money and/or valuables. The robber will typically threaten to use a weapon such as a gun or knife, but mugging can also involve physically beating the victim. Mugging differs from theft in its use of violence or intimidation.

[edit] Moral panic over muggings

The term 'mugging' gained its current popularity in the US, with New York infamously described in the 1970s as 'the mugging capital of America'. However, the crime is as old as history and among other things has been known as highway robbery, purse-snatching, or footpadding (which could be surreptitious or violent). In Victorian times the targets were wallets and gold watches, but in the US there was a big increase in reported street robberies and handbag snatches from the 1960s onwards as new consumer items became popular. In England the fashion for mugging either arose or gained popularity through many social factors in the late seventies and eighties, and became a cultural phenomenon among some urban youths. There was perceived to be a growing tendency for young males to steal from other young males. The principal targets became fashionable accessories like trainers, MP3 players and especially mobile phones, but excitement and status were undoubtedly important motives too. In the US and in the UK the news media themselves became excitable about mugging, and some observers blame newspapers for a moral panic in England from the early 1970s at a time when “newspaper reporting of mugging(s) emerged and became increasingly sensational”^[1] Nonetheless, as recorded crime statistics, insurance claims, and national crime surveys all show, street robberies remained a growing problem until they peaked at about the turn of the millennium. In several tragic cases victims died when they struggled with assailants, through falling from moving buses or under vehicles, being punched and hitting their heads on the sidewalk, being stabbed or shot.