The discussion rests on the premise that great social and demographic changes seem to work profound changes on patterns of crime and that the criminal law, police, courts, and prisons together can restrain common crime only if they reinforce underlying social forces that are moving in the same direction. Thus, the destiny of crime, law, and society in the United States in the 1990's and the next century will probably result from a combination of short-term and long-term developments that will affect all Americans in an increasingly multicultural society. These developments include an increasing emphasis on education, an increasingly effective educational system that will counteract criminogenic factors, a more conservative Federal judiciary that will reduce the emphasis on due process in favor of repression of crime, and the increasing role of high technology in the criminal justice system. Other trends will include the growing role of community self-help and the incapacitation of greater numbers of serious criminals through an expanded prison population. The 1984 episode in which Bernhard Goetz shot four youths on a New York City subway train exemplifies some of these trends. Reference notes.