Crime Theory Evaluation Using Simulation Models of Residential Burglary

This paper provides new insights on the study of crime modeling through the development of a hybrid cellular automaton (CA) and Multi-agent System (MAS) simulation model that is able to combine components of multiple criminological theories to forecast the locations of residential burglary targets:...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Chastain, Bryan (Author)
Contributors: Qiu, Fang ; Piquero, Alex R.
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2016
In: American journal of criminal justice
Year: 2016, Volume: 41, Issue: 4, Pages: 814-833
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Keywords:
AHP
Agent-based modeling
GIS
Crime simulation
Description
Summary:This paper provides new insights on the study of crime modeling through the development of a hybrid cellular automaton (CA) and Multi-agent System (MAS) simulation model that is able to combine components of multiple criminological theories to forecast the locations of residential burglary targets: journey to crime (JTC), social disorganization (SD) theory, and routine activity (RA) theory. In order to combine individual factors from each theory into a unified model, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed for hierarchical parameter selection. The model is then evaluated using data on offenders obtained from the Dallas Police Department to examine how different crime theories perform in the prediction of residential burglary. Compared to the SD- and RA-weighted models, the JTC-weighted model performed the best when comparisons were made to actual burglary locations. The findings demonstrate that the simulation models of crime provide test beds for research into the explanatory power of various crime theories.
ISSN:1936-1351
DOI:10.1007/s12103-016-9336-8