This chapter draws upon the voices of our participants to explore some of the reasons why robbery occurs within Scotland's illicit drugs trade. Some motivations are somewhat obvious given the victim-offender overlap and relationship to the law, the potential profits involved, the accessibility of targets, and so on, yet some motivational factors are not so obvious and require deeper contextual analysis. While the chapter aims to discuss robbery in the drugs markets specifically, many of the motivations discussed can be applied to robbery in general (for example Jacobs and Wright, 1999; Contreras, 2012).

Robbing for money … and what money can buy

Compared to high-end market-based crimes like drugs-, firearms-, and sex-trafficking, robbery provides instant gratification. Usually all that is needed is the willingness to “go ahead” and “get stuck in” when the opportunity presents itself, interviewees said. If done right, the financial rewards can be great because what sets robbery apart from similar predatory-based crimes like theft or burglary is the instant cash – there is less need to work with third parties to store and sell stolen goods. The money is therefore the main reason why our interviewees started robbing. Participant Stephen told us simply: “I do it for money. Really, I do, do it for the money”.

Stephen robbed for the money, but money was never an end unto itself. Money was a means to achieve something else. To pay household bills, buy a house, a car, or other luxury goods, even go on holiday. Another interviewee, Dicky, took the pragmatic view that robbery with any motive was primarily fuelled by one's need to self-indulge: “Why does anyone do anything now? Self-indulgence, you know.” Money satisfied this need by affording the offender the means to purchase whatever is “one's poison”.

Stephen commented that robbery could bring almost instantaneous changes in fortune. One minute, he was indebted or struggling to pay for goods and services, and then, one robbery later, he was back on track and his worries were in the rear-view mirror. It was the instant gratification that robbery provided, the (financial) stress relief, that drove Stephen to rob.