PostDOC INTERVIEW TALK - Modeling Street Gang Rivalries and Spatial Patterns
- When:
- Monday, September 10, 2012, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
- Where:
- 6th fl Large Conference room 689
- Speaker:
- Laura Smith
- Description:
Host: Kristina Lerman
We propose two models to simulate the creation of street gang rivalries and their territories. The first approach uses an agent-based model. Here, the movement dynamics of agents are coupled to an evolving network of gang rivalries, which is determined by previous interactions among agents in the system. The second approach modifies a partial differential equation model for coyotes and wolves. Territorial animals and street gangs often exhibit similar behavioral characteristics. Both groups have a home base and mark their territories to distinguish claimed regions. Both models integrate basic gang data, geographic information, and behavioral dynamics suggested by the criminology literature. The major highways, rivers, and the locations of gangs' centers of activity influence the agents' motion. We use a policing division of the Los Angeles Police Department as a case study to test our model. We apply common metrics from graph theory to analyze our model, comparing networks produced by our simulations and an instance of a Geographical Threshold Graph to the observed network from the criminology literature.
Bio: Laura Smith attended Western Washington University for both my bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics in 2005 and 2007, respectively. She then completed a doctoral degree in applied mathematics in June 2012. She worked with several undergraduate research projects through the Applied Mathematical Sciences Summer Institute (2005-2007) and the Research in Industrial Projects for Students (2011) programs.
