Modelling Norms

Crime is wrong, wrong in the sense of morally wrong. How come that none of the current models of criminal behaviour makes use of the concept of morality? We discuss the major classes of models of criminal behaviour focusing in particular on the new methodology of Agent Based Modelling. We argue that as long as any form of moral reasoning is ignored models will fall short of capturing important features for the understanding of criminal behaviour and crime prevention. This book is a contribution to the methodology of the social sciences as it provides the first systematical assessment of the contribution of Agent Based Modelling to the analysis of norms and deviance. It is also an extension of the methodology as it provides a cognitive enrichment to the largely behavioural simulation models by formalizing and implementing a moral form of reasoning. Any social scientist, from postgraduate onwards, interested in computational social science applied to normative and deviant behaviour will have an interest in reading this book.