@article{ref1,
title="Stochastic modeling of a serial killer",
journal="Journal of theoretical biology",
year="2014",
author="Simkin, M. V. and Roychowdhury, V. P.",
volume="355C",
number="",
pages="111-116",
abstract="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 &quot;Devil's staircase&quot; 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 illustrate analytical results by numerical simulation. Time pattern activity data from two other serial killers further substantiate our analysis.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0022-5193",
doi="10.1016/j.jtbi.2014.03.039",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2014.03.039"
}