Traditional crime has been falling for some time in most countries around the world.  However, developing technologies and our use of them are creating new opportunities for offending. For example, estimates from the Crime Survey of England and Wales indicate that in the UK at least, online fraud and related offences account for as many crimes as do "traditional" offences. Widespread social changes are also taking place that may create new opportunities for crime, either independently or in combination with our use of developing technology.

To date, academia and law enforcement have been rather reactive both in terms of identifying new and emerging forms of offending and in developing approaches to address them.  It is with the aim of addressing these issues that the Dawes Centre for Crime at UCL was established. In this talk, I will discuss the future crime agenda, the approach we are taking to systematically explore how developing technology might be used to address, as well as create, crime opportunity, some of our progress to date, and the need to work with policy makers and industry.

Shane D Johnson is a Professor and Deputy Head of Department at the UCL Department for Security and Crime Science. He was previously a lecturer in Forensic Psychology and before that a senior research fellow at the University of Liverpool. He has worked within the fields of criminology and forensic psychology for over 15 years, and has particular interests in complex systems, patterns of crime and insurgent activity, maritime piracy, civil violence, event forecasting, and design against crime. He has conducted work for a variety of sponsors including the AHRC, EPSRC, Home Office, UK police forces, the Department for the Environment & Rural Affairs (Defra), Department for Education & Skills (DfES) and British Academy.