On the global well-posedness theory for a class of PDE models for criminal activity

We study a class of 'reaction-advection-diffusion' system of partial differential equations, which can be taken as basic models for criminal activity. This class of models are based on routine activity theory and other theories, such as the 'repeat and near-repeat victimization effect' and were first introduced in Short et al. (2008) [11]. In these models the criminal density is advected by a velocity field that depends on a scalar field, which measures the appeal to commit a crime. We refer to this scalar field as the attractiveness field. We prove local well-posedness of solutions for the general class of models. Furthermore, we prove global well-posedness of solutions to a fully-parabolic system with a velocity field that depends logarithmically on the attractiveness field. Our final result is the global well-posedness of solutions the fully-parabolic system with velocity field that depends linearly on the attractiveness field for small initial mass. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.