Re-Examining of Moffitt's Theory of Delinquency through Agent Based Modeling

PLoS One. 2015 Jun 10;10(6):e0126752. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0126752. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Moffitt's theory of delinquency suggests that at-risk youths can be divided into two groups, the adolescence- limited group and the life-course-persistent group, predetermined at a young age, and social interactions between these two groups become important during the adolescent years. We built an agent-based model based on the microscopic interactions Moffitt described: (i) a maturity gap that dictates (ii) the cost and reward of antisocial behavior, and (iii) agents imitating the antisocial behaviors of others more successful than themselves, to find indeed the two groups emerging in our simulations. Moreover, through an intervention simulation where we moved selected agents from one social network to another, we also found that the social network plays an important role in shaping the life course outcome.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Humans
  • Juvenile Delinquency*
  • Models, Psychological*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education (Singapore) Academic Research Fund Tier 2 grant (MOE2012-T2-1-079) awarded to Principal Investigator Rebecca P. Ang and Co-Principal Investigators Siew Ann Cheong and Vivien S. Huan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.