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Study, Crime and Justice in a Changing Worldby United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), presented on Wednesday 15thth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Abu Dhabi.
Based on nine regional studies, this research found this homicides fell from 5.9 per 100,000 people in 2015 to 5.2 in 2023 and is is expected to decline by 25 percent between 2015 and 2030 under current trends.
regional disparities
However, tariffs remain highest in Latin America and the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa – which together account for around two-thirds of all homicide victims worldwide – and often driven by organized crime, gangs and transnational criminal groups.
The report says the two trends are not contradictory but reflect a shift in the way criminal profits are generated: away from local predation and towards transnational markets, digital victimization and exploitation of legitimate trade and supply chains.
Criminal networks are increasingly linked to the legitimate economythe report found.
In Latin America, cartels that began with drug trafficking have expanded into the agriculture, mining, fishing and wildlife sectors. while Europol estimates that almost a fifth of criminal networks in Europe operate in various criminal markets.
In the In Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, criminal groups operating in special economic zones trafficked thousands of people and fled cyber fraud schemesincluding romance investment scams and crypto scams.
Check out UN news and our original report on ‘farming fraud’ in Asia Here
In the Cambodiaestimates of illicit revenues from cybercrime and illegal gambling range from $12.5 billion to $19 billion per year – which is equivalent to 60 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Technology has lowered barriers to entry, with generative AI and “cybercrime-as-a-service” models meaning criminal capabilities are no longer dependent on organizational sophistication.
A 2025 survey of 42 countries cited in the report found that 57 percent of adults worldwide had experienced fraud and 23 percent had lost money in the previous 12 months.
A tougher response
The report states that the justice system is facing enormous pressure many of them are more influenced by concerns about security and state control than by the rule of law and human rights.
The report points to militarized policing, a more punitive approach to prisons, and a lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility in some regions of Oceania, East Asia, and Latin America – often at odds with evidence on what reduces crime.
Meanwhile, Countries are adopting surveillance and AI technologies faster than the rules needed to regulate them.
The report also highlights these successes Brazil the continued decline in homicide rates in the large city of São Paulo since the early 2000s has been attributed to this data-driven policing, firearms restrictions, and municipal countermeasures.
Five roads
The study suggests five areas for further research, engagement and transregional coordination:
- how emerging criminal models spread from one region to another
- when and where different types of crime overlap and influence each other
- the long-term impact on crime rates and what happens to trust in institutions
- the impact of increasingly transactional collaborations, as opposed to long-lasting partnerships
- how a multipolar world is changing the way institutions work
