The pioneering Design Against Crime Research Centre, as it says, uses design to reduce crime.  Preventing crime poses many challenges for the design profession and designers need to be far more creative than criminals. The design dilemma is how to design objects, services, and environments that address both users and abusers, without making them look 'criminal'.  The Design Against Crime Centre adapts everyday items and creates ingenius gadgets that make committing crime near impossible.

Design Against Crime Research Centre is based at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, one of University of the Arts London’s six Colleges.

Design Against Crime’s world-leading initiatives include Grippa, a specially designed hook to prevent bag theft from bars and restaurants, and Bike Off, a bike rack that allows cyclists to leave their bikes to be safely locked away on the street.

Have a look at a recent profile by the BBC on some of the Centre’s designs.