Skip to main content

Agent-Based Models to Predict Crime at Places

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Overview

Crime occurrences are driven by a complicated mix of distinct influences, including those of the environment, the surrounding social context, and personal behavior/psychology of the people who could influence a crime event. Agent-based modelling is a methodology used in computer simulation that concentrates on individual-level behaviors and is ideally suited to modelling crime. This is particularly true of crimes such as burglary or street crime, which are heavily influenced by environmental factors and by the behavior of individual people. In an agent-based crime model, virtual “agents” are placed in an environment that allows them to travel through space and time, behaving as they would do in the real world. This entry will discuss why the crime system is such an ideal candidate for agent-based models and will review a number of crime models that have recently arisen.

Introduction

Individual crime occurrences are caused by a complicated mix of factors, including – but not...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 4,350.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 4,999.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Recommended Reading and References

  • Andresen M, Malleson N (2011) Testing the stability of crime patterns: implications for theory and policy. J Res Crime Del 48:58–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonabeau E (2002) Agent-based modeling: methods and techniques for simulating human systems. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99(90003):7280–7287

    Google Scholar 

  • Brantingham PL, Brantingham PJ (1993) Nodes, paths and edges: considerations on the complexity of crime and the physical environment. J Environ Psychol 13(1):3–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Brantingham P, Brantingham PJ (2004) Computer simulation as a tool for environmental criminologists. Secur J 17:21–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Castle C, Crooks A (2006) Principles and concepts of agent-based modelling for developing geospatial simulations, UCL working paper series. Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Chainey S, Ratcliffe J (eds) (2005) GIS and crime mapping, 1st edn. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke RV (1995) Situational crime prevention. Crime Justice 19:91–150

    Google Scholar 

  • Dray A, Mazerolle L, Perez P, Ritter A (2008) Policing Australia’s ‘heroin drought’: using an agent-based model to simulate alternative outcomes. J Exp Criminol 4(3):267–287

    Google Scholar 

  • Eck JE, Liu L (2008) Contrasting simulated and empirical experiments in crime prevention. J Exp Criminol 4(3):195–213

    Google Scholar 

  • Eck JE, Weisburd D (1995) Crime and place, volume 4 of crime prevention studies. Criminal Justice Press, Monsey

    Google Scholar 

  • Edmonds B, Moss S (2005) From KISS to KIDS: an ‘anti-simplistic’ modelling approach. In: Davidsson P, Logan B, Takadama K (eds) Multi agent based simulation. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 130–144

    Google Scholar 

  • Elffers H, van Baal P (2008) Realistic spatial backcloth is not that important in agent based simulation research: an illustration from simulating perceptual deterrence. In: Eck JE, Liu L (eds) Artificial Crime Analysis Systems: Using Computer Simulations and Geographic Information Systems. Information Science Reference, Hershey

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans A (2011) Uncertainty and error. In: Heppenstall AJ, Crooks A, Batty M (eds) Agent-based models for geographical systems. Springer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert N, Terna P (2000) How to build and use agent-based models in social science. Mind Society 1(1):57–72

    Google Scholar 

  • Groff ER (2007) Simulation for theory testing and experimentation: an example using routine activity theory and street robbery. J Quant Criminol 23(2):75–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Groff E, Mazerolle L (2008) Simulated experiments and their potential role in criminology and criminal justice. J Exp Criminol 4(Special Issue):187–193

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayslett-McCall K, Qui F, Curtin KM, Chastain B, Schubert J, Carver V (2008) The simulation of the journey to residential burglary. In: Liu L, Eck J (eds) Artificial crime analysis systems: using computer simulations and geographic information systems. Information Science Reference, Hershey

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu L, Eck J (2008) Artificial crime analysis systems: using computer simulations and geographic information systems. Information Science Reference, Hershey

    Google Scholar 

  • Macal CM, North MJ (2005) Tutorial on agent-based modelling and simulation. In: Kuhl ME, Steiger NM, Armstrong FB, Joines JA (eds) Proceedings of the 2005 winter simulation conference. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Piscataway, pp 2–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Malleson N, See L, Evans A, Heppenstall A (2010) Implementing comprehensive offender behaviour in a realistic agent-based model of burglary. SIMULATION. Published online before print: http://sim.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/10/20/0037549710384124

  • Malleson N, Evans A, Heppenstall A, See L (2011) Crime from the ground-up: agent-based models of burglary. Geogr Compass (forthcoming)

    Google Scholar 

  • Moss S, Edmonds B (2005) Towards good social science. J Artif Soc Soc Simulat 8

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Sullivan D, Haklay M (2000) Agent-based models and individualism: is the world agent-based? Environ Plann A 32(8):1409–1425

    Google Scholar 

  • Schelling T (1969) Models of segregation. Am Econ Rev 59:488–493

    Google Scholar 

  • Wooldridge MJ (2009) An introduction to multiagent systems. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nick Malleson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Malleson, N., Evans, A. (2014). Agent-Based Models to Predict Crime at Places. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_208

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_208

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5689-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5690-2

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Publish with us

Policies and ethics