ABSTRACT
Chaos theory illuminates how things – systems – change over time. Specifically, chaos theory is relevant for the study of those dynamical systems that are 'nonlinear' in their behavioural tendencies – those for which the 'outputs' of the system can be disproportional to the 'inputs', or for which a change in one variable does not produce a proportional change in related variables. Some of the most significant and widely discussed implications of chaos theory for the social and behavioural sciences are epistemological in nature, involving questions of what we can know and how we can know it. The inherent complexity and 'sensitivity' of nonlinear dynamical systems would seem to have important implications for how we construct theoretical models and empirical investigations of crime. Chaos theory may help elucidate some of the fundamental flaws in and shortcomings of existing theoretical models, such as over-prediction and the inability to account for behavioural differences between similarly situated individuals or groups.
