Math Formula May Explain Why Serial Killers Kil

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Cornell University Paper link

http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.2458v1


Stochastic modeling of a serial killer

M. V. Simkin, V. P. Roychowdhury
(Submitted on 12 Jan 2012)

We analyze the time pattern of the activity of a serial killer, who during twelve years had murdered 53 people. The plot of the cumulative number of murders as a function of time is of "Devil's staircase" type. The distribution of the intervals between murders (step length) follows a power law with the exponent of 1.4. We propose a model according to which the serial killer commits murders when neuronal excitation in his brain exceeds certain threshold. We model this neural activity as a branching process, which in turn is approximated by a random walk. As the distribution of the random walk return times is a power law with the exponent 1.5, the distribution of the inter-murder intervals is thus explained. We confirm analytical results by numerical simulation.

Subjects: Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph); Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC)
Cite as: arXiv:1201.2458v1 [physics.soc-ph]