In English law, robbery is an aggravated form of theft usually by the use of force. It is a statutory offence contrary to Section 8 of the Theft Act 1968 and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The use of force, or putting or seeking to put the victim in fear of subjection to force, in order to steal. The force must be used at the time of, or immediately before the stealing.
An intention or recklessness as to the use of, or putting in fear of subjection to force, is almost certainly a further requirement.
In the argot used by professional crooks, highway robbery was known as the high law.
Gamaliel Ratsey, a gentleman soldier who was hanged for robbery in 1605, became the hero of two collections of stories about his exploits as a highwayman.
At the end of the century, a passage in the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft demonstrates the persistence of the belief that the behaviour of English highway robbers proved the superiority of the English over the French.
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