Modelling Norms [Paperback]

The book focusses on questions of individual and collective action, the emergence and dynamics of social norms and the feedback between individual behaviour and social phenomena. It discusses traditional modelling approaches to social norms and shows the usefulness of agent-based modelling for the study of these micro-macro interactions. Existing agent-based models of social norms are discussed and it is shown that so far too much priority has been given to parsimonious models and questions of the emergence of norms, with many aspects of social norms, such as norm-change, not being modelled.? Juvenile delinquency, group radicalisation and moral decision making are used as case studies for agent-based models of collective action extending existing models by providing an embedding into social networks, social influence via argumentation and a causal action theory of moral decision making. The major contribution of the book is to highlight the multifaceted nature of the dynamics of social norms, consisting not only of emergence, and the importance of embedding of agent-based models into existing theory.?

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 AglC-