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.

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/4344882/file/5763027.pdf

Should criminologists be feeling lucky!? Applying Google Maps and Google Street View in criminological research

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

/pdf/applying-google-maps-and-google-street-view-in-40n0w1s3w7.pdf

Applying Google Maps and Google Street View in criminological research

To empirically test whether offenders consider environmental features at multiple spatial scales when selecting a target and examine the simultaneous effect of neighborhood-level and residence-level attributes on residential burglars’ choice of residence to burglarize. We combine data on 679 burglaries by 577 burglars committed between 2005 and 2014 with data on approximately 138,000 residences in 193 residential neighborhoods in Ghent, Belgium. Using a discrete spatial choice approach, we estimate the combined effect of neighborhood-level and residence-level attributes on burglars’ target choice in a conditional logit model. Burglars prefer burglarizing residences in neighborhoods with lower residential density. Burglars also favor burglarizing detached residences, residences in single-unit buildings, and renter-occupied residences. Furthermore, burglars are more likely to target residences in neighborhoods that they previously and recently targeted for burglary, and residences nearby their home. We find significant cross-level interactions between neighborhood and residence attributes in burglary target selection. Both area-level and target-level attributes are found to affect burglars’ target choices. Our results offer support for theoretical accounts of burglary target selection that characterize it as being informed both by attributes of individual properties and attributes of the environment as well as combinations thereof. This spatial decision-making model implies that environmental information at multiple and increasingly finer scales of spatial resolution informs crime site selection.

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8631604/file/8631605.pdf

“Location, Location, Location”: Effects of Neighborhood and House Attributes on Burglars’ Target Selection

It is widely recognized that crimes are clustered in space. Features of the built environment are among various factors associated with crime clustering patterns. There are two competing perspectiv...

The influence of urban built environment on residential burglary in China: Testing the encounter and enclosure hypotheses:

Objectives

This study builds on research undertaken by Bernasco and Nieuwbeerta and explores the generalizability of a theoretically derived offender target selection model in three cross-national study regions. 

Methods

Taking a discrete spatial choice approach, we estimate the impact of both environment- and offender-level factors on residential burglary placement in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Combining cleared burglary data from all study regions in a single statistical model, we make statistical comparisons between environments. 

Results

In all three study regions, the likelihood an offender selects an area for burglary is positively influenced by proximity to their home, the proportion of easily accessible targets, and the total number of targets available. Furthermore, in two of the three study regions, juvenile offenders under the legal driving age are significantly more influenced by target proximity than adult offenders. Post hoc tests indicate the magnitudes of these impacts vary significantly between study regions. 

Conclusions

While burglary target selection strategies are consistent with opportunity-based explanations of offending, the impact of environmental context is significant. As such, the approach undertaken in combining observations from multiple study regions may aid criminology scholars in assessing the generalizability of observed findings across multiple environments.

Burglar target selection : a cross-national comparison

Environmental research on residential properties’ vulnerability to burglary usually focuses either on the houses that have been burgled or on the streets in which they are located. This research explores both house and street level in a fixed-effects model and, using tangible CPTED measures, takes a wider perspective to assess vulnerability to burglary. The results indicate that dwelling type, visibility and boundary height have significant effects, and that street type and indicators of antisocial behaviour also have strong effects. Furthermore, these street-level variables appear to strengthen some of the house-level vulnerabilities. We argue that both house and street levels should therefore be included in any assessment of the risk of burglary.

Adding to the mix: a multilevel analysis of residential burglary

Technological progress has a great impact on the lives of many citizens. The increasing amount of available information may however be used by criminals too, for example by burglars in their search for a suitable target. Applying the rational choice perspective and by means of an experiment with students, this paper first investigates whether it is likely or not that tools such as Google Maps and Google Street View are used for burglary. Furthermore, we investigate whether the considered target characteristics differ when such tools are used. The results indicate that we cannot give an affirmative answer to these questions so far.

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/2112311/file/6770821.pdf

S. Van Daele

Papers

Adding to the mix: a multilevel analysis of residential burglary

Technische hulpmiddelen en doelwitselectie bij woninginbraak: een experimenteel onderzoek naar het gebruik van Google Maps en Google Street View