Applying Google Maps and Google Street View in criminological research

Christophe Vandeviver

doi:10.1186/s40163-014-0013-2

Abstract

Online mapping technologies such as Google Maps and Street View have become increasingly accessible. These technologies have many convenient uses in everyday life, but law enforcement agencies have expressed concern that they could be exploited by offenders and might alter existing offending patterns and habits. For environmental criminologists, they have the potential to open up new approaches to conducting research. This paper draws on the results of earlier studies in related fields and a handful of criminological studies to discuss how these online mapping applications can trigger new research questions, and how they could be considered a valuable methodological addition to criminological research.

Highlights

Google Maps and Street View have not been developed with scientific research in mind, they create interesting possibilities for research
Geographers rely on aerial photography from Google Maps as an alternative to expensive commercial satellite imagery (Pringle 2010) and biologists tap into Street View imagery to assess the habitat of certain animal species (Olea and Mateo-Tomás 2013)
In order to reliably collect international comparative environmental data this will need to be assessed in detail. Online mapping technologies such as Google Maps and Street View have recently become available for a large audience, including offenders, law enforcement agencies and criminologists

Summary

Introduction

Google Maps and Street View have not been developed with scientific research in mind, they create interesting possibilities for research. While there are abundant examples of studies that apply Google Maps and Street View in related scientific fields, only a few criminological studies have tapped into the power of online mapping technologies for research purposes. Offenders and law enforcement agencies have already discovered the power of these online mapping services and use them daily, criminologists, somewhat surprisingly, seem not to have fully discovered the advantages of using Google Maps and Street View in their research. For a number of cities worldwide, 45° aerial imagery is available allowing users to get a better understanding of the size and proportions of buildings as well as observe certain landmarks from four different perspectives. The underlying aerial imagery database powers Google Earth, a downloadable geographical information program with similar functionalities to Google Maps that allows users to access map data from their desktop. Three-dimensional mapping was made available in Google Maps in late 2011 (McClendon 2011)

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