Towards Integration of Biological, Psychological and Social Aspects in Agent-Based Simulation of Violent Offenders

Abstract

In the analysis of criminal behaviour, a combination of biological, psychological and social aspects may be taken into account. Dynamical modelling methods developed in recent years often address biological, psychological, or social dynamical systems separately. This paper makes the first step in the development of an agent-based modelling approach for criminal behaviour in which these aspects are integrated in one dynamical system. It is shown how within a certain (multi-agent) social context, biological factors such as certain brain deviations, testosterone levels and serotonin levels, affect cognitive and emotional functioning in such a way that a crime is committed when the perceived opportunity is there. The paper presents one generic model for the behaviour of violent offenders with parameters that can be set to obtain simulation traces for three known types of offenders.Most closely related work: • Moir, A., and Jessel, D. (1995). A Mind to Crime: the controversial link between the mind and criminal behaviour. London: Michael Joseph Ltd; Penguin.• Raine, A. (1993). The first three references are related to this paper because they describe simulations of criminal behaviour. However, they focus only on social/environmental aspects, and not on the integration of biological, psychological, and social aspects. The fourth reference is related to this paper because it provided the criminological background that we used for our simulation model. The last three references are related to this paper because they provided the biological and psychological background that we used for our simulation model. AbstractIn the analysis of criminal behaviour, a combination of biological, psychological and social aspects may be taken into account. Dynamical modelling methods developed in recent years often address biological, psychological, or social dynamical systems separately. This paper makes the first step in the development of an agent-based modelling approach for criminal behaviour in which these aspects are integrated in one dynamical system. It is shown how within a certain (multi-agent) social context, biological factors such as certain brain deviations, testosterone levels and serotonin levels, affect cognitive and emotional functioning in such a way that a crime is committed when the perceived opportunity is there. The paper presents one generic model for the behaviour of violent offenders with parameters that can be set to obtain simulation traces for three known types of offenders.

Routledge Handbook of Crime Science

“…Modelling humans is hard, but in the study of crime we are primarily interested in behaviour that is believed to be represented by a number of relatively manageable perspectives, such as rational choice, routine activity, and crime pattern theory. These perspectives can be codified to a certain extent (Bosse et al, 2009b), thus endowing the actors in a simulation with behaviour relevant for a human actor. With a model of the actors and the relevant environment we can use a computer to simulate crime events.…”

“…• Researchers at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam use a logical approach to the specification of the macroscopic regularity, where a kind of model checking separates simulated behavioural traces that lead to crime from those that do not lead to crime (Bosse et al, 2007a(Bosse et al, , 2007bGerritsen, 2008, 2009;Bosse et al, 2009bBosse et al, , 2009aBosse et al, 2009b). • Researchers at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver use an interactive approach towards the detection of the macroscopic regularity, in the sense that successful simulations exhibit for example crime hotspots (Glässer et al, 2006;Brantingham et al, 2004Brantingham et al, , 2005.…”

Applying the agent-based social impact theory model to the bullying phenomenon in K–12 classrooms

“…38 In recent years, the agent-based dynamics models have been used to analyze problems within a cross-field system. Bosse et al 39 combined biological, psychological and social aspects to analyze the behavior of violent offenders. Bosse et al 39 categorized the behavior of violent offenders into three types: cognitive and behavioral, socially influenced and biological aspects and created a simulation for the agent-based dynamics model.…”

Intelligent mind mapper — An advanced computational model for identifying criminal behavior

“…a. A sub model for reasoning about beliefs, desires and intentions based on the Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) agent model, which is an event-driven execution model providing both reactive and proactive behavior [8]. The BDI agent model is built on a simplified view of human intelligence.…”