Crime

WHAT'S NEXT?: Crime is morphing away from traditional methods to more sophisticated technological approaches. A decline of traditional hierarchical criminal groups and networks will be accompanied by the expansion of a virtual criminal underground made up of individual criminal entrepreneurs. At the same time, forward-looking agencies are equipping themselves with smart technologies to outfox the criminals. Keep up to date with crime changes below.

• [New] The growing pressure on criminal gangs comes after Trump this year forced Mexico's hand on immigration by threatening to impose tariffs on Mexican exports to the United States.
• By 2030, the combination of space technology and AI will have helped us deal with global challenges like deforestation, oil spills, farming, cross-border terrorism and migration flows, and will continue to provide insights that are meaningful at a local level for the economy.
• The world is facing an unprecedented threat from intolerance, violent extremism and terrorism that affects every country, exacerbating conflicts and destabilising entire regions.
• Problems between some countries; challenges to multilateralism; transnational crime, which is estimated to cost more than 100 billion US Dollars a year; disruptive technology; climate change; environmental degradation; and marine debris.
• The new French Indo-Pacific strategy advances three key threats to be met by Paris, beyond dealing with North Korean belligerence: transnational terrorism, Chinese challenges to the multilateral order in the region, as well as climate change.
• Terrorism will continue to be a feature of Europe's security landscape in the coming years, well beyond the threat of IS: anarchic, right - or left - wing terrorism continues to pose a serious problem to the EU but receives much less attention.
• While politicians scrabble to write laws that may protect societies from weaponised deepfakes, startups such as Faculty, whose clients including the Home Office and numerous police forces, hope to inoculate the internet-going public to their effects.
• The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - a rebel group that fights for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey - is probably worse at terror and more of a terrorist threat in many ways than Islamic State.
• There will be a 6.3% increase in real terms UK Home Office spending - £750m - to fund the first year of the government's plan to recruit 20,000 new police officers.
• Acts of terrorism, whether perpetrated by groups such as ISIL and Al Qaeda, or terrorist groups with other extremist views, continue to pose a threat to our society.
• The Iraq War inspired the creation of ISIS and gave renewed momentum to al-Qaeda; imagine how war with Iran might mobilize Hezbollah, the richest and best-trained terrorist organization in the world.
• Climate change (if there's a new US president in 2021) and terrorism are other arenas where the US and China will cooperate.
• Community-backed projects in 21 areas across England will each receive a share of £9.5 million to help families who are vulnerable to the devastating effects of knife crime and gang culture.
• The heir of the al-Qaeda organization in Iraq - the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - has lost control of most of the ground it once held in Iraq and Syria but remains a very dangerous terrorist threat, with offshoots in Libya, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
• Devastating terrorist attacks in New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the past year are a reminder that threats to security are still apparent, but perceptions of the danger posed by terrorism have diminished in recent years.
• In 2020-21, there will be a £1.8bn real increase in funding for UK schools, £1bn for local government and £750m to go towards recruiting 20,000 additional police officers.
• Countries could learn from China: During the past three years, there has not been a single incident of a terrorist attack, and people in Xinjiang feel much better and much more happy and secure.
• At a projected cost of £1.1 billion, a total of 20,000 police officers will be recruited over three years for England and Wales.
• The UK government is undertaking consultations on a legal duty to support a multi-agency public health approach to violence across the UK, building on lessons learned in Scotland.
• As the Trump administration and Taliban officials wrap up negotiations, many fear that a US withdrawal could return Afghanistan to the terrorist safe haven it was before the 9/11 attacks.

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Last updated: 07 December 2019