Crime

Crime rates fell more than 40 percent in the 1990s, and appeared to have leveled off.  Criminal justice agencies address traditional crime and emerging threats as diverse as identity theft and human trafficking.

Technologies such as DNA analysis, crime mapping, and computer forensics are altering law enforcement operations, helping to uncover crime patterns and identify perpetrators. For example, Project Safe Neighborhoods, a national initiative to reduce gun violence, merges crime mapping techniques that pinpoint neighborhood "hot spots" with intervention and collaboration methods developed by NIJ.