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The Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC) at Central Saint Martins (CSM) is a socially responsive, practice-led research unit which uses tools, processes and products of design to help resist all kinds of crime and promote quality of life and sustainable living through enhanced community safety. DAC is a relatively new, interdisciplinary area of enquiry developed through innovative national and international crime science research collaborations with three overarching aims:

1.To reduce the incidence and adverse consequences of crime through the design of products, services, communications and environments that are ‘fit for purpose’ and contextually appropriate in all other respects; to this end,
2.To equip design parishioners with the necessary cognitive and practical tools and recourses; and
3.To prove and promote the social and commercial benefits of designing out crime to manufacturing and service industries, as well as to local and national government, and society at large.

To realise these aims requires linking tow worlds: helping designers to “think thief” and aiding crime prevention experts to “draw on design”. Such an approach enables DAC to take its place alongside other established thematic movements such as eco-design.