SPECIAL SERIES: How universities help fight crime

It's the mother of clichés: crime pays. But, happily for many of the world's top universities, this is sometimes true. With commercial and financial crime becoming ever more complex, academics are responding to demand and becoming experts on a subject that the private and public sectors want to understand. In the first of an occasional series of articles, University World News this week takes a look at some of the better-known North American academics in a cutting edge and developing field.

Academics have always been happy to talk to society about their knowledge and some disciplines are more topical than others. Science and business are areas where new thoughts and theories are constantly being applied to the economy and government, and crime is another subject and is of interest to everyone.

In the article by Monica Dobie in this issue, and the others to follow in future editions, we report on these academics and their schools to show the breadth of expertise available worldwide. This is not just to demonstrate to academia that it has globally important resources but also to show to our readers outside universities, colleges and research centres what is available and how higher education can be a partner for progress to businesses and governments. We hope that readers may suggest other fields that can be highlighted that are of equal importance to civil society, which we could explore in future editions.