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Crime and terrorism are not static problems. They change on timescales from days to decades. In part, this flux stems from offenders adapting to exploit opportunities afforded by exogenous social and technological developments in society, and to cope with threats from other offenders. But significantly too it derives from arms races between offenders and those on the security side. On the security side, however, the consensus among change-minded commentators has been that ‘contemporary crime control policies are hopelessly static’ (Cohen et al., 1995:216; see also Dietl, 2008). Ekblom (1997, 2016a) argues that to win campaigns rather than merely individual battles against criminals and terrorists, we must routinely out-innovate adaptive offenders against a background of technological and social change that may first favour one side, and then the other. The classic example is Shover’s (1996) study of safes and safe-breakers, where new, emerging technologies including combination locks, cutting tools, new hardened alloy casings and so forth flipped the advantage back and forth between the opponents.

Question: What makes connections (often deep ones) between diverse areas, has a network of equally diverse participants, and the potential to significantly impact the life of cities and their inhabitants? Answer: The researchers who combined to produce this special issue, of course. I was privileged to see them, and others, in action at a workshop convened in Stockholm by the Editor of this special issue, and to read the papers published here. I am no specialist in transport crime, but have a broad interest in research and practice in crime prevention and particular concern with the built environment and with design in general. The Editor has already capably summarised the content of the articles in the Introduction, which allows me, in what follows, to reflect on some of the many issues raised, both specific to transport and common to the whole of crime science.

This chapter seeks to link technology and crime science, including situational crime prevention. It starts by briefly considering the nature of technology. It then looks at the relationship between technology, opportunity, problems and solutions. But opportunity is a more subtle concept than many in the field assume, needing further development for present purposes. It is therefore discussed in relation to both traditional frameworks of crime science and to a more integrated and detailed counterpart, the Conjunction of Criminal Opportunity. But all the opportunity frameworks need supplementing by an account of the dynamics of crime, especially through the concepts of scripts and script clashes. A major section then examines the relationship between crime and technological change, covering adaptations and clashes over longer timescales, in the shape of co-evolutionary arms races between offenders and preventers. This spans both biological and cultural evolution. Then come sections on the practicalities of adopting a deliberately evolutionary approach to prevention—gearing up against crime, innovation and design—and finally some weaknesses of purely technological approaches to crime prevention. The conclusion reviews the significance of understanding technology for crime science. This enhanced understanding of how changing technology can both create and block opportunity for crime, nuisance and terrorism (henceforth, crime) is needed to help us anticipate, detect and respond to the many changes in the crime and security world we can expect to encounter during the rest of the twenty-first century.

In our increasingly knowledge-driven society, we continually encounter guides on ‘how-to’ operate new procedures and technologies at home and work, necessitating rapid familiarization with terms, standards and updates, adaptation to new constraints and exploitation of new enablers. This occurs whenever we change companies, move posts, our current post alters beneath us, or the operating environment out there changes along the axes of science and technology, the economy, the environment or the law. We must also become discerning consumers — learning to distinguish ‘good’ knowledge from the irrelevant, wrong or outdated.

The opening lines of the handbook issued by Sir Robert Peel to all officers of the Metropolitan Police in 1829, were these: ‘It should be understood at the outset that the object to be attained is the prevention of crime. To this great end every effort of the police is to be directed. The security of person and property, the preservation of the public tranquility, and all the other objects of a police establishment will thus be better effected than by the detection and punishment of the offender after he has succeeded in committing the crime.’ Quoted in Reith (1948:62). Mayne, one of the first two Commissioners, added this principle: ‘To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.’ Quoted in Boyd (2012). What exactly they meant by prevention is open to interpretation, and whether this was just a ruse to help convince a suspicious public that in England ‘continental’ methods of repression would not be adopted is not clear. But by the late 19th Century the reactive approach of catching criminals or ‘feeling collars’ had come to predominate; and in the 20th, the politically-significant rhetoric of ‘fighting crime’ achieved consensual hegemony, delivered huge resources to policing over the years and of course powerfully shaped the policing organisation. It was not until the 1960s that the first signs of resurgence of an explicit, practical, preventive role were seen.

Publisher's description of the book that contains this chapter: How can a society prevent-not deter, not punish-but prevent crime? Criminal justice prevention, commonly called crime control, aims to prevent crime after an initial offence has been commited through anything from an arrest to a death penalty sentence. These traditional means have been frequently examined and their efficacy just as frequently questioned. Promising new forms of crime prevention have emerged and expanded as important components of an overall strategy to reduce crime. Crime prevention today has developed along three lines: interventions to improve the life chances of children and prevent them from embarking on a life of crime; programs and policies designed to ameliorate the social conditions and institutions that influence offending; and the modification or manipulation of the physical environment, products, or systems to reduce everyday opportunities for crime. Each strategy aims at preventing crime or criminal offending in the first instance - before the act has been committed. Each, importantly, takes place outside of the formal criminal justice system, representing an alternative, perhaps even socially progressive way to reduce crime. The Oxford Handbook of Crime Prevention is a comprehensive, up-to-date, and authoritative review of research on crime prevention. Bringing together top scholars in criminology, public policy, psychology, and sociology, this Handbook includes critical reviews of the main theories that form the basis of crime prevention, evidence-based assessments of the effectiveness of the most important interventions, and cross-cutting essays that examine implementation, evaluation methodology, and public policy. Covering the three major crime prevention strategies active today-developmental, community, and situational-this definitive volume addresses seriously and critically the ways in which the United States and the Western world have attempted, and should continue to strive for the prevention of crime.

In the 1970s a conjunction of North American and UK studies on the effectiveness of conventional policing, probation and imprisonment ushered in the era of pessimism known as ‘nothing works’ (Clarke and Hough, 1984; Lipton et al., 1975). Partly as a result, ‘civil’ approaches to crime prevention, ranging from situational to developmental and community-based interventions, emerged. Attempting to span the division of labour for tackling crime, these commonly adopted a multi-agency or partnership orientation. Demonstration projects testing the new approach had a mixed start (Hope and Murphy, 1983) but by the mid-1980s action-researchers had learned useful lessons and marked successes were occurring (e.g. Forrester et al., 1988, 1990). These began to attract the attention of policy makers and politicians faced with rising crime and falling funds for conventional enforcement approaches.

(2001). Future Imperfect: preparing for the crimes to come. Criminal Justice Matters: Vol. 46, New Developments in Criminal Justice, pp. 38-40.

These features confront us with a pernicious combination of moving targets and shifting ground. They set the scene for an arms race between preventers and organised offenders (Ekblom, 1997, 1999), especially where social and technological change constantly creates new opportunities for offending – new targets, environments, business models, tools and information sources. Even successful crime control methods eventually weaken as offenders learn to circumvent them. Legislative solutions lag behind changing crime patterns – particularly those requiring international agreement.

Part 1: Origins of the Concept 1. Transnational Organised Crime: The Global Reach of an American Concept 2. Europe's Response to Transnational Organised Crime 3. Global Law Enforcement as a Protection Racket: Some Sceptical Notes on Transnational Organised Crime as an Object of Global Governance Part 2: Measurements and Interpretations 4. Measuring Transnational Organised Crime: An Empirical Study of Existing Data Sets on TOC with Particular Reference to Intergovernmental Organisations 5. Classify, Report and Measure: The UK Organised Crime Notification Scheme 6. The Network Paradigm Applied to Criminal Organisations: Theoretical Nit-picking or a Relevant Doctrine for Investigators? Recent Developments in the Netherlands 7. Transnational Organised Crime: A Police Perspective Part 3: Case Studies 8. Bad Boys in the Baltics 9. Controlling Drug Trafficking in Central Europe: The Impact of EU Policies in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Lithuania 10. Recognising Organised Crime's Victims: The Case of Sex Trafficking in the EU Part 4: Current and Prospective Responses 11. The Legal Regulation of Transnational Organised Crime: Opportunites and Limitations 12. Countering the Chameleon Threat of Dirty Money: 'Hard' and 'Soft' Law in the Emergence of a Global Anti-money Laundering Regime 13. Criminal Asset Stripping: Confiscating the Proceeds of Crime in England and Wales 14. Proteiform Criminalities: the Formation of Organised Crime as Organisers' Responses to Developments in Four Fields of Control 15. Organised Crime and the 'Conjunction of Criminal Opportunity' Framework 16. After Transnational Organised Crime? The Politics of Public Safety