Development and Validation of an Agent-Based Simulation Model of Juvenile Delinquency

This paper describes the development and validation of a dynamic multi-agent model to simulate social learning of adolescence-limited criminal behaviour. The parameters of the agent model have been calibrated using real-world data that has been collected in a large study. In addition, a measure for correctness has been developed. The validation shows that the developed model predicts delinquency substantially better than a baseline model that only uses the delinquency of an agent in the previous year.