Often the robberies involved rape, but rape is so taboo that Human Rights Watch did not obtain firsthand accounts from any victims.
In one ad, blood begins oozing out of phones in people's hands, followed by a message on the screen that suggests buyers of stolen devices are indirectly responsible for the often-violent robberies plaguing the country.
That, in turn, necessitates that all marijuana businesses operate strictly in cash, which often leads to robberies and muggings.
The F.B.I. called him the Dapper Bandit because he dressed nicely for bank robberies, often wearing a suit or a sport coat.
Just as articles on bank robberies often feature a spaghetti-western still of Clint Eastwood, reports on child prostitution are almost always accompanied by a still of Jodie Foster in "Taxi Driver".
"They read about it in the media or see it on TV and they figure if it works for the other guy, it would work for me," he said, adding that increases in robberies often reflect a pattern of crimes involving one person committing more than one robbery.
But such robberies often go unpunished because they're generally only reported after the perpetrator has fled, unless someone is always watching the security cam — a costly service.
Nairobi, Kenya's capital, is a teeming city of have-nots and have-lots, so notorious for violent crime that it is often called "Nai-robbery".
Maybe this is why the crime film has remained a constant (dating right back to 1903's The Great Train Robbery, often credited as the first narrative picture).
Victims of armed robbery often encode and thus can recall details about the weapon, but sometimes fail to encode information such as the clothing worn by the assailant.
