So this claim surprised me -- I'm always willing to be wrong, but didn't think I was here -- so I went bouncing around in my backfiles to find the statistic I had quoted off the cuff.
It turns out, after following a few citations in papers, that the FBI keeps fairly accessible info on this.
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/bank-crime-st...
$7.5k per incident, give or take.
* No-one gets up early on a Monday to rob a bank,
* 1 in 10 bank robberies leave without a penny - one in ten !
* Perps die a lot more than anyone else.
* They only identify (catch?) 50% - but incredibly 95% of robbers can have their race identified (doesn't anyone wear masks anymore?)
* There is a high number (78% of those caught) of first time bank robbers. (Then again that might be obvious)
Well they can all go on my list of things I did not know yesterday.
A ski mask or similar does not necessarily obscure all racially identifying characteristics (e.g. you can see skin color, eye color, eye shape and often pick up the gist of bone structure — as well as hear their voice if they speak).
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/white-bank-robber-chang...
Interesting that even with those precautions he was still caught.