Abstract
Purpose: This agent-based modeling (ABM) explores the impacts of a professional's decision making on young people in their social lives.
Methods: In this model young people are presented with opportunities to engage in prosocial and antisocial activities. In these processes’ authority figures act either as a deterrent; actively reduce the risk of recidivism; or actively reduce risk and encourage prosocial development.
Results: We assess the outcomes of those interventions and through running simulations, observe the ways in which the use of authority contributes to the creation of path dependence and the locking in of recidivism.
Discussion: We conclude by discussing the findings and the ethics of punitive approaches that lock in recidivism, and question why these approaches continue in the light of the evidence. We then discuss the application of ABM to social work practices more broadly and particularly the promise of participatory approaches.
Methods: In this model young people are presented with opportunities to engage in prosocial and antisocial activities. In these processes’ authority figures act either as a deterrent; actively reduce the risk of recidivism; or actively reduce risk and encourage prosocial development.
Results: We assess the outcomes of those interventions and through running simulations, observe the ways in which the use of authority contributes to the creation of path dependence and the locking in of recidivism.
Discussion: We conclude by discussing the findings and the ethics of punitive approaches that lock in recidivism, and question why these approaches continue in the light of the evidence. We then discuss the application of ABM to social work practices more broadly and particularly the promise of participatory approaches.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Research on Social Work Practice |
| Early online date | 1 Sept 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Early online - 1 Sept 2025 |
Keywords
- Agent-based model
- young people
- risk factors
- complexity theory
- path dependence
- professional decision-making
