This page highlights Dr. Hoffer’s work integrating agent-based modeling (ABM), ethnographic and epidemiological research to study drug addiction. By merging these methods, the objective is to reproduce the dynamics of: 1) substance use disorder, 2) illegal drug acquisition and market operations, as well as 3) other outcomes associated with drug use behavior. The computational models discussed are both informed by and intended to reproduce contexts in which drug users interact, as well as the environments in which they use drugs.
SAMPLE PUBLICATIONS
(2013) Hoffer, Lee, & Alam, Shah Jamal, “Copping” in Heroin Markets: The Hidden Information Costs of Indirect Sales and Why They Matter. (In) Greenberg, A.M., Kennedy, W.G., Bos, N.D. (Eds.): Social Computing, Behaviorial-Cultural Modeling and Prediction – 6th International Conference, SBP 2013, Washington, D.C. Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) 7812, Springer 2013, ISBN 978-3-642-37209-4.
(2013) Hoffer, L.D., Unreal Models of Real Behavior: The Agent-Based Modeling Experience. Practicing Anthropology, 35(1): 19-23.
(2012) Hoffer, L.D., Bobashev, G., and Morris, R.J., Simulating Patterns of Heroin Addiction within the Social Context of a Local Heroin Market. (In) Gutkin & Ahmed (Eds.): Computational Neuroscience of Drug Addiction. New York: Springer.
(2009) Hoffer, L.D., Bobashev, G., and Morris, R.J., Researching a Local Heroin Market as a Complex Adaptive System. American Journal of Community Psychology, 44: 273-286.