Robbery is the taking of something of value from another person using force or violence or the threat of force or violence. In the movies and on television, robbers are professional criminals, pointing assault weapons at bank tellers and carjacking people at gunpoint. However, under most state’s laws, robbery can include both these sorts of crimes, as well as behavior that many people would consider much less serious. For example, a person who shoves a college student walking home from a bar and steals the student’s cell phone out of his or her hand has committed robbery. So has a seventh grader who threatens other students on the playground with beatings if they do not give up their milk money.
For more general information on robbery, see Robbery and Differences Between Theft, Burglary and Robbery.