We have to face a new reality : the existence in today’s world of increased internationalization due to both the development of free enterprise and market economics and the establishment of worldwide communications networks. Given this reality, generally described as globalization, we must seek to establish whether there are significant correlations between these economic, political and technological phenomena and the new developments in crime that are perceptible internationally. That is the aim of this 56th International Criminology Course (International University of Miami, USA, Sept. 1999).