Notwithstanding these disadvantages, it is a promising and viable alternative to on-site audits that can be used in several ways. For instance, researchers could combine online and offline audits in their research design. Initially, online audits could be used to cover a large area, and save money and time. In a follow-up phase, researchers could uses those resources to actually visit the study area.
Small-scale items could then be accurately measured and the social environment could be qualitatively assessed. Moreover, online mapping technologies could also be used on-site, while the audit is conducted. Second, online mapping technologies are a valuable methodological addition to environmental criminological research.
They offer new ways to collect data on the physical environment in a cost- and time-efficient manner. Over time and as Street View coverage increases, it might foster international, comparative environmental criminological research. At the same time, Google Maps and Street View are helpful tools that allow researchers to re-assess established practices in environmental criminological research (cf. Caplan et al. ). Google Maps in particular constitutes a helpful tool that allows to visualize environmental criminological data in a familiar mapping interface and disseminate research results to a broad audience (cf. Eman et al. ). In addition to the research questions online mapping technologies might trigger, their availability is a boon to criminologists and Google Maps and Street View could become powerful methodological tools in criminological research (Kindynis ). First, they enable environmental criminologists to collect data on the physical environment, often in a cost- and time-efficient manner.
Using Google Maps in environmental criminological research might allow researchers to address some of the drawbacks related to using conventional maps, and Street View seems to be particularly helpful as a tool to remotely collect data on the built environment. Moreover, the many underlying application programming interfaces could reduce the resources required to obtain certain types of information. Although Google Maps and Street View have not been developed with scientific research in mind, they create interesting possibilities for research. Several scientific disciplines were quick to implement these web mapping applications in their research. For instance, geographers rely on aerial photography from Google Maps as an alternative to expensive commercial satellite imagery (Pringle ) and biologists tap into Street View imagery to assess the habitat of certain animal species (Olea and Mateo-Tomás ). However, 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.
In this article I argue that the proliferation of online mapping technologies opens up several new approaches for criminologists to conduct environmental criminological research in particular. A small number of criminological studies have already shown that these technologies can be a valuable addition to environmental criminological research, and this article considers how they might be implemented in future criminological research. Drawing on previous criminological applications, I discuss how the availability of Google Maps and Street View can generate new research questions; and how they could be considered important additions to the methodological toolkit of criminologists. Only a handful of criminological studies have so far implemented Google Maps and Street View in one way or another in their research designs.
This is somewhat surprising, since the general public, offenders and law enforcement agencies have already discovered the advantages online mapping technology offers in their daily life and work. Iraqi and Palestinian militants have admitted to using web-based mapping applications to select possible targets for terrorist attacks . Similarly, graffiti writers and shoplifters in London were found to use Street View to look for new targets (Kindynis ).
Burglars are believed to 'google' for potential targets and may be using online mapping technologies when casing homes for break-ins (Michaels ). Householders also believe Street View might contribute to burglary (The Telegraph ; Pyatt ; Power et al. ), a concern that is shared by ex-burglars (Sterling ) and police unions (De Tijd ) alike. Researchers should also be aware that there are some major drawbacks to using these web mapping technologies in their research.
Moreover, the user should understand what is being stipulated in the terms of service, and should be aware that these documents change over time. In particular, users should understand that Google collects personal information when you use any of their services, such as name, telephone number and credit card information (Google ). Additional information that is collected includes device-specific information such as telephone number and unique device identifiers, log information such as telephone logs and internet protocol addresses, and actual or approximate location information. While this information is primarily used to improve Google products and user experience, it might be shared with partner companies, the general public, and upon request with law enforcement agencies and courts. This might be a particularly significant drawback in obtaining offenders' consent to participate in research that makes use of Google Maps or Street View.
Finally, users need to obtain prior written authorization from Google to publish any of the content available in Google Maps and agree that they will not promote or provide instructional information about illegal activities (Google ). Both stipulations could seriously limit the opportunities to implement Google Maps in criminological research. Additional services that are available in Google Maps include Street View, a route planner for driving, public transit, walking and bicycling, and a business locator. The custom maps environment (Google ) allows users to add additional layers of content such as places, labels, photos, and videos to the underlying Google Maps map. Moreover, users can draw lines, shapes and patterns directly on the map, add directions, and organize and compare up to three different datasets. Once created, custom maps can be shared and users can work together to create a collaborative custom map.
First, usability is a key element of these particular web mapping technologies, and new developments continuously aim to improve their usability and the user's experience (Nivala et al. ; McClendon ). Novice web users can make use of Google Maps and Street View, as they are not required to master specific technical expertise. Moreover, it is safe to assume that most people will have some familiarity with online mapping technologies, since many of us use these technologies in one way or another in our daily lives.
Research subjects can focus on the tasks at hand, such as performing mapping tasks or browsing Street View imagery, instead of needing to figure out how to interact with the online environment. On a side note, advanced use, such as interacting with the API, does require some familiarity with the web mapping technologies. However, this is a task primarily set aside for the researcher, and research subjects in criminological research will rarely have to interact with the API.
Finally, Street View has already been successfully used to measure environmental characteristics in environmental criminological research. For instance, in a study of the mechanisms of theft of older cars (Fujita ), Street View imagery allowed the researcher to estimate the number of vehicles parked on street segments in Newark, New Jersey, as well as their make, model and generation. Measures of land use and physical disorder were also obtained by auditing Street View images. Kronkvist () related virtually observed physical disorder to victimization of property crime. Comparisons of self-reported perceived levels of disorder with data on physical disorder collected through Street View indicate that virtual audits yield reliable data on physical disorder and allow to predict neighborhood differences in victimization. Similarly, a Canadian study of the effects of physical and social features on burglary victimization used Street View to virtually assess design features of houses (Apps ).
The results from all these studies support the idea that Street View is a reliable tool to collect data on a range of environmental characteristics and that it can be used successfully in an environmental criminological setting. In the past, when Google finished updating the street view photos, they removed the old imagery. They recently discovered the value in those old Street View images due to the many user requests to view them again.
Eventually they decided to add all of the archived photography back to the maps for users to view and dig through. On April 23, Google officially announced the launch of Historical Street View. The availability of web-based mapping technologies could foster international, comparative environmental criminological research in the near future. The idea behind Street View is that it allows for the virtual exploration of the real world (McClendon ). It aims to bring the real world, or at least part of it, to the user's computer through a collection of immersive 360° panoramas.
Researchers are no longer required to travel to far away or remote areas to experience and tour them. Moreover, promising results from public health studies that have used Street View to virtually audit the built environment suggest that it is a reliable, quick and cost-effective alternative to in-person, on-site audits. The online Maps Help Center (Google ) provides a comprehensive overview of the features that Google Maps and Street View offer, the many tools that are available and how to use them. Most users will find their questions answered by browsing through this database, which can also be quickly searched by using the search bar. Users who want to develop an application that taps into the power of Google Maps or Street View should also consult the Google Maps Web API help site (Google ), or related sites such as the Google Developers website (Google ).
This section aims to help criminologists to form an opinion on whether or not to use web mapping technologies in their own research project by discussing the major strengths and weaknesses of applying Google Maps and Street View in research. Caplan et al. () created CCTV camera viewsheds by using aerial imagery from Google Maps. The viewing distance of CCTV cameras was initially set at twice the median length of a Newark block face , even though cameras might be able to zoom and view beyond this arbitrarily set viewing distance. Next, aerial imagery from Google Maps was used to create viewshed polygons for each CCTV camera included in the study. These aerial photographs allowed the researchers to take into account buildings and other barriers that limit the line of sight of a camera. To validate this alternative method, several cameras were randomly selected to ground-truth the Google Maps viewshed.
This was done by observing viewing distances and lines of sight on CCTV monitors in the police control room (as was done previously by Ratcliffe et al. ) and comparing these viewsheds with those obtained from Google Maps. Caplan et al. () reported minimal deviations and concluded that the Google Maps method is equally robust, less time-consuming and more easily accessible for researchers. Researchers that want to get more out of Google Maps and Street View than the visual interface offers, might want to consider using one of the many underlying APIs.
These require researchers to have a basic understanding of programming but allow them to perform a variety of time and resource intensive tasks relatively easily and without cost. For instance, researchers can use the Geocoding API to easily convert address information into precise geographic coordinates that can then be plotted on a map or vice versa. The Places API allows to query the Google database for place information on a variety of categories such as businesses and schools. The result is a list of summary information including location, business hours and price categories.
The latter API provides recommended travel distances and times for a matrix of address locations. Google's API picker (Google ) provides a comprehensive overview of the available APIs and suggests the appropriate API for a range of common things that users may want to do in Google Maps or Street View. Second, the proliferation of online mapping technologies allows to reconsider established practices in environmental criminological research. Moreover, Google Maps constitutes a helpful tool to visualize environmental criminological data and make research results easily accessible to a broad audience.
It is exactly this concern that Van Daele et al. () scrutinized in a study that examined whether burglars are likely to rely on online mapping technologies to select a suitable target. For years, Google Maps has offered Street View, which stitches together panoramic camera images to recreate a digital facsimile of physical spaces in the real world that you can explore online. Some people are discovering that if they scroll through the platform long enough and use a time travel feature, they just might find the image of a late loved one captured by one of Google's cameras — and seemingly saved in Google Maps forever. By selecting "street view" and clicking on a clock icon at the top of the screen, users can explore an area's evolution as far backas Google's photo-documentation can reach. The project pulls together years of Google Street View imagery, some of it previously unreleased, and took several months to complete. It marks the latest in a recent string of expansions in what users can see in street view, from the ruins of Angkor Wat to the Colorado River.
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. This paper articulated several of these possibilities and highlighted different aspects of Google Maps and Street View in relation to environmental criminological research. Second, it is unclear how recent and accurate the information contained in these applications is. While Google aims to update the Maps and Street View content on a regular basis, update schedules are not publicly available. As a result, it is unclear whether Google's claim that the available imagery in Google Maps is not older than three years holds.
Moreover, some of the available information will be inaccurate and reflect out-of-date situations. This is especially true for the Street View imagery, since Google focuses on expanding coverage and only intermittently updates existing imagery. However, users can determine the approximate capture date of the available imagery either by using Google Earth when they wish to know the date of Google Maps' aerial imagery or by checking the status bar of the Street View imagery (Agarwal ). Moreover, the recently introduced 'time traveling' option (Shet ) allows users to see how certain areas have changed over time .
As Google expands its Street View database and repeatedly collects footage of the same area, this option could become a particular powerful tool for researchers interested in evaluating the impact of changes in the environment on crime and crime prevention. The idea behind the Krimistati.si project was to combine police data with relevant economic and socio-demographic variables, present this in an easy-to-use mapping interface that uses the Google Maps environment, and make it publicly available (Eman et al. ). Slovenian citizens could then easily obtain information on the distribution of reported crimes and could see whether or not a particular type of crime had occurred in their home neighborhood.
The Slovenian police would have access to the Krimistat.si project with additional crime mapping functionalities. The researchers expressed their hope that this project would make crime mapping analyses and the outcome of such analyses more comprehensible for the general public. Although no notable technical difficulties were encountered and the Slovenian law enforcement agencies were offered the chance to use the tool internally, the ultimate goal of the project was not achieved.
Moreover, financial constraints prohibited the Slovenian police from acquiring the Krimistat.si program. Regarding their first research question, Van Daele et al. () conclude that it is fairly unlikely that burglars would make use of Google Maps and Street View on a large scale. Participants that were not given additional instructions on how to select a target did not use these applications spontaneously when looking for targets.
Moreover, the participants that used Google Maps and Street View predominantly used them to assess targets in areas they were already familiar with. The availability of online mapping technologies did not result in participants looking for targets outside their awareness space. In other words, participants did not randomly explore Google Maps and Street View until they came across a suitable target. Their pre-established awareness space guided their use of the web mapping applications and determined where they looked for targets in these online tools. In addition, the requirement to take a photograph of the proposed target made participants predominantly look for targets near their starting point (Van Daele et al. ).
Van Daele et al. () set out to examine whether the proliferation of online mapping technologies might contribute to burglary and alter known burglary patterns. First, they explored whether it is likely or not that burglars rely on Google Maps and Street View to search for potential targets. Burglars look for targets in their awareness space (Brantingham and Brantingham ).
Before the advent of web-based mapping tools, this awareness space was established while performing routine activities such as traveling to work or visiting friends. Now, however, by browsing through Google Maps and Street View burglars can become aware of previously unknown areas and case potential targets. Since Google Maps and Street View enable armchair exploration (McClendon ), the burglar's awareness space and the number of potential targets are potentially vastly expanded. It is only sporadically used as a source of geographically relevant information. It has, for instance, been used to map the spatial distribution and interconnectedness of scientific output (Leydesdorff and Bornmann ; Bornmann et al. ; Leydesdorff and Persson ) and to geo-reference poetry in urban spaces (Berry and Goodwin ).
Psychologists have used Google Maps to collect information on places visited by participants in a study on daily activity (Wolf et al. ). In addition to keeping a diary of places they visited during the study and being monitored via GPS, participants were required to pinpoint the places they visited in Google Maps. Google Maps can also be a particularly powerful tool to nurture crowdsourced and crowdcasted science, by letting users create and share maps embedded with information on their environment (Hudson-Smith et al. ; Kindynis ; Lefer et al. ).
Originally launched in 2005, Google Maps (Google ) is a free-to-use, web-based mapping service that combines conventional cartographic maps with satellite imagery and high-resolution aerial photography. The maps are embedded with additional information on terrain, street and road names, famous landmarks and buildings, public transit, real-time and typical traffic information. Users can conveniently switch between map and satellite view, or opt for a hybrid view that overlays the information available in the map view onto the satellite view .
