Five forces will affect future crime patterns: value systems, technological change, the integration of work and leisure, children and the elderly, and religion or the lack of it. Values guiding the criminal justice system shifted from a concern for individual rights to a concern for law and order in the last decade. This philosophy will crumble in the future, with deterrence replacing retribution as the dominant value. Indicators show that crime is falling, although this trend could be reversed by the breakdown of the family and emptying of mental hospitals. As society becomes increasing heterogeneous, the main values of the 1990's should be tolerance and cooperation. With regard to technological change, computers create a new type of crime, but they also help catch conventional criminals. Other advances include electronic monitoring of parolees and probationers and biomedical research into causes of violence and addictions. Paying special attention to children and the elderly can also curtail crime in the future. The author explores society's search for symbiosis and advocates a system of mediation/arbitration as an alternative to the overcrowded, erratic, and slow court system. Photographs.