When Jill Dando died in April 1999 her colleagues and friends searched for a suitable tribute to her, and, together with her family, founded a world-leading project which will be of lasting benefit to society.

From her time as a local court reporter to her national fame on Crimewatch Jill Dando had an empathy with victims; she had a justified reputation as a journalist who cared, rather than one who was simply hungry for a story. She would have wanted to approach issues of crime constructively and proactively, rather than through simply demonising offenders.

Within a few months the Jill Dando Fund raised over £1m towards creating the world's first centre for the new discipline called Crime Science. The term and the idea were coined by Nick Ross to draw experts from many fields together to focus on novel, systematic, and evidence-based ways to reduce offending. In crime science, rather as after an airline crash, the main concern will be to explore system failures so as to avert other catastrophes rather than simply apportion blame. Upstream knowledge about crime is surprisingly scant. Criminology often gravitates to theory rather than practical crime reduction.

Crime Science takes the best practical and scientific parts of criminology, combined with a broad range of other disciplines including physics, engineering, economics, applied psychology, statistics, geography, town planning and architecture. It concentrates on how product design, service provision, administrative measures, human resources, and the built environment can reduce temptation and increase certainty of detection.

It has support from police and intelligence agencies and is likely to become an important resource for training investigators and a new breed of crime prevention agents, but it is fundamentally not a police institution. Business leaders will want to be kept informed of the latest advances in crime science because they can apply techniques directly to reduce haemorrhaging through crime within their own companies. Also they will increasingly come under pressure to design their products and services in ways that limit opportunities for crime so that their customers are less likely to become victims of crime. Civil servants and local government officials will find new ways to make public policy less conducive to crime.

In academic terms, Crime Science offers a novel course that integrates different subjects and makes rigorously academic pursuits highly attractive to a broad range of potential students both from the arts and sciences. UCL (University College London) was selected by an expert committee because of its international standing, academic excellence, research facilities and the enthusiasm for the project of its senior staff. The Institute provides MSc courses and is developing the full range of university degrees including BSc, and PhD. It will also host a range of shorter practical courses. It is engaged in high-level briefings, police training, research, and large-scale practical crime reduction initiatives including redsesign of government policies commissioned by ministers.

Jill died tragically through crime, hence the forget-me-not logo, and the motto of the charity: not for nothing.

For more information please contact:

The Director of Development,
UCL,
Gower Street,
London WC1E 6BT, UK

Please help if you can. To make a personal donation please send a cheque or PO to:

'The Jill Dando Fund'
Lloyds TSB
50 Notting Hill Gate,
London W11 3JD, UK

Sort code: 30 96 19
Account No: 0840689

Registered Charity No: 1079824