Integration of Biological, Psychological and Social Aspects in Agent-Based Simulation of a Violent Psychopath

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 these aspects separately. This paper contributes an agent-based modelling approach for behaviour of a certain criminal type, the violent psychopath, in which these aspects are integrated in one dynamical system. It is shown how within a certain social context, an interaction between biological factors and cognitive and emotional factors can lead to a crime committed when an opportunity is perceived

The social construction of a serial killer

Much psychological research examining the serial killer has adopted an essentialist theoretical focus concentrating on the `nature' of the individual who commits the murder. This study, in contrast, aims to analyse the talk of a serial killer using principles taken from discursive psychology. A courtroom transcript concerning the confession to 10 murders by the serial killer, Dennis Rader, was analysed. The transcript was read and reread in order to examine how the killer drew upon popular understandings of serial killing, until eventually three main discourses were identified: perpetrator as `sympathetic', `serial killer' and `driven by sexual fantasy'. The analysis demonstrated that these discourses all served to reinforce the widely shared construction of the serial killer, i.e. being sexually motivated. Furthermore, the findings show how this construction served the functions of mitigating responsibility, justifying certain actions and obscuring violence. Possible implications of this construction and its discursive functions are discussed

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

In the analysis of criminal behavior, a combination of biological, psychological and social aspects may be taken into account. Dynamical modeling 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 modeling approach for criminal behavior 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. This paper presents one generic model for the behavior of violent offenders with parameters that can be set to obtain simulation traces for three known types of offenders. © 2009, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved