An Agent-Based Model for Criminal Behavior

1. Introduction: An agent-based model (ABM) is a model generated by defining the behavior of each component or agent of a system, rather than the macro-behavior of the system on the whole. Often these agents can be described with a few simple laws and are thus easier to describe mathematically. Such models can be very useful in analyzing complex emergent phenomena and they are often the most natural way to describe social systems exhibiting group behavior. (1) I have therefore applied the ABM technique to investigate the trends that emerge from a system of criminals committing robberies in a neighborhood in hopes of shedding light on actual crime data.