Robbery by hypnosis in Italy : a psycho-criminological analysis of the phenomenon based on 20 years of newspaper articles (1988-2007)

Shocking news of robberies committed using hypnosis on bank cashiers, salespeople, or passersby have sporadically been reported by the media in countries around the world. The first reported episode in Italy dates back to the 1950s. Although the phenomenon has been reported in the papers more frequently in recent years, no objective analysis of it has been published in the scientific literature. This paper analyses 106 episodes recorded in Italy between 1988 and 2007, identified by a systematic review of the online and printed archives of Italian national and local dailies and of the database of the country’s principal press agency. When they are analyzed from a psychological and criminological standpoint, there is no evidence to support any real use of hypnotic methods in the episodes described.