Trends in Crime Prevention: What's Coming and What Can We Do About It?

Changing Demographics

What's Coming?

• U.S. population demographics are shifting. We are becoming more diverse linguistically, culturally, and ethnically.
• Estimates are that by 2040, people of color (predominantly African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos) will make up the majority of the population.
  

What Can We Do About It?

• Recognize that one size does not fit all!
• Know that prevention and enforcement will have to adapt to diverse languages and ideas of lawful behaviors and diverse perceptions of prevention and enforcement strategies.

Communities

What's Coming?

• Communities continue to form outside residential settings, including workplace, religious affiliation, personal interests, and activities.
• Children, youth, adults, and seniors are connecting with people living thousands of miles away.
• Technological change continues to expand.

What Can We Do About It?

• Provide lasting prevention strategies in the face of changing forms of community and communication.

Seniors

What's Coming?

• Seniors are the fastest growing age group. By 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 years or older.
• Seniors will live longer and eventually experience diminished cognitive and physical faculties.  Many will become less in touch with innovations.
• This group will continue to be a major target of financial crimes because of their resources, lifestyle, and mindset.

What Can We Do About It?

• Increase public attention to seniors as a growing population with strengths and vulnerabilities.
• Adapt proven communication strategies to reach senior audiences.

Emerging Crimes

What's Coming?

• Identity theft, Internet and email scams, terrorism, and designer drug use are on the rise.
• Financial crimes are becoming more deceptive and undetectable and have the potential for capturing massive amounts of information and/or assets.

What Can We Do About It?

• Keep up-to-date about the changing faces of crime and adapt crime prevention appropriately.
• Use new tools (crime mapping, crime analysis, web and email tracking systems) and develop more tools to counter new crime.
• Collaborate with community agencies to develop preparedness strategies to increase security; prevention is the first prong of preparedness in the community.

Evidence-based Programming and Outcome-based Evaluations

What's Coming?

• Crime prevention practitioners will be required to provide evidence that programs and initiatives work and be able to measure and prove their outcomes.  

What Can We Do About It?

• Educate the crime prevention field on existing research and evaluation activity.
• Increase partnerships with academia.

Overall Recommendations

• Find effective ways to reach diverse populations
• Form partnerships with experts in topical issues.
• Develop communication strategies using the most current technologies and appropriate techniques.
• Help develop a global network for prevention.