Integrating Rational Choice and Subjective Biological and Psychological Factors in Criminal Behaviour Models

The Rational Choice Theory describes criminal behaviour as a form of means-end decision-making. In contrast, it is often argued that criminal behaviour involves subjective, personal biological and psychological aspects. This paper contributes an agent-based modelling approach for criminal behaviour integrating such subjective aspects with decision-making based on means-end analysis, and illustrates this for street robbery. The agent model developed is a combination of a BDI-model and a utility-based decision model in the context of such desires and beliefs. The resulting approach incorporates subjective, context-sensitive means-end analysis, where the context covers biological and psychological aspects as mentioned.