Agent-Based Simulation of Crime

Abstract

The effects of crime are diverse and complex, ranging from psychological and physical traumas faced by crime victims, to negative impacts on the economy of a whole nation. In this paper, an agent-based crime simulation framework to analyze crime and its causes is proposed and implemented. The agent-based simulation framework models and simulates both 1) crime events as a consequence of a set of interrelated social and individual-level crime factors, and 2) crime opportunities, i.e., combinations of circumstances that enable a person to commit a crime. The selection of crime factors and design of agent models are supported by, and based on, existing criminological literature. In addition, the simulation results are validated and compared with macrolevel crime patterns reported by various criminological research efforts.Agent-based social simulation; agent-based modeling; crime; situational crime