Modeling Murders: Following the Yorkshire Ripper

Presentation Year

2026

College or Department

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Short Description of your Research or Creative Project (700 characters or less)

When working to identify active serial killers, police collect data on the killer’s behavioral patterns to predict their activity. Peter Sutcliffe, also known as the Yorkshire Ripper, started killing in the 1900s and primarily targeted women from red-light districts. This project uses an agent-based modeling approach that incorporates the behavioral choices of Sutcliffe to predict the home location of a killer with similar traits. The accuracy of our model was measured by calculating the distance between the predicted and the true house location of the killer. This model shows the effectiveness of using an agent-based model to simulate a serial killer’s activity.

Permission to Publish Work

Yes

Presentation File Upload

mathematics-garcia-alexis-199322-3x4.pdf (1.39 MB)

Primary Contact: First Name

Alexis

Primary Contact: Last Name

Garcia

Primary Contact: Email

avg24@humboldt.edu

Primary Contact: I am a

Undergraduate Student

Primary Contact: Phone Number

(619)944-5394

Indicate File Dimensions

4'x3'