Crime and Justice in a Changing World

Criminal justice systems are confronting a changing crime landscape, characterized by growing connections across borders and digital environments. Globalization, shifting trade patterns, conflict, technological innovations and environmental pressures have altered the conditions in which crime occurs, creating new opportunities for criminal actors and new challenges for the institutions responsible for preventing, investigating and responding to crime. At the same time, while some more conventional non-transnational forms of crime have declined in many regions, other transnational, interconnected and technologically enabled forms have taken on greater prominence, creating a global picture in which crime is evolving in different directions and at different speeds. Understanding these shifts is essential to understanding crime and justice in a changing world. From regional trends to a global picture This report, Crime and Justice in a Changing World, forms part of UNICRI’s Crime and Justice Trends Study, a research initiative launched in 2025 to better understand how crime and criminal justice are evolving across and within regions. The Study comprises a series of nine regional ana...