Public Perceptions of Change in Urban Landscapes with Drastic Crime Shifts Using Google Street View

• In Event: Communities and Place Panel: Spatiotemporal analysis of crime and modelling: Insights from the Brazilian context

Abstract

Various factors can lead to significant shifts in crime patterns in cities, including changes in mobility, increased police patrols, and modifications to the urban landscape. While changes in people’s movement patterns and police presence are relatively easy to measure, quantifying the impact of changes in the urban landscape is more challenging. In this study, we conducted a human-centred investigation in which participants (university students) visually assessed whether the landscape had changed. Participants completed a web survey in which they compared pairs of Google Street View (GSV) images of the same location taken at different time periods, identifying any noticeable differences. The images were captured from locations in São Paulo, Brazil, where crime dynamics experienced a sudden shift at some point within a ten-year period. Students from multiple countries were recruited to explore cross-cultural perceptions of changes in urban landscapes. A statistical analysis revealed the complexity of the relationship between urban change and crime dynamics in areas with drastic and sudden crime shifts. The presentation concludes with reflections on key lessons for both research and practice.

Authors

• Germain Garcia-Zanabria, UTEC - Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología, Peru

• Vania Ceccato, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden

• Luis Gustavo Nonato, University of São Paulo