Behavioral biologists assert that whether some individuals engage in expropriative activities depends largely on what other individuals in the population are doing and the frequency and competence with which they do it. Expropriative strategies are most likely to be successful to the extent that they are some or all of the following: cryptic, deceptive, bold, surprising, evasive, resistant, stimulating, mobile, and mutable. Freedom and prosperity often produce the social and ecological conditions that favor the proliferation of expropriative crime strategies. The most effective way of reducing such crime might be an approach similar to that used by public health officials to deal with epidemics. The steps would include the development of sophisticated information systems, identifying the populations most at risk, intensively informing the at-risk public on recognizing and reporting specific forms of expropriative behavior, and continually alerting the general public on how to avoid being victimized. Such a program could produce significant benefits only if delivered with great intensity over a sustained period of time. 30 references