Do searches on Google help in deterring property crime? Evidence from Indian states

Crime is a major social problem in most developed and developing countries. It induces a social, economic, and psychological impact on the victim. Over the last few decades, India has also witnessed an increasing trend in crime rates. The majority of these crimes are property-related. This study aims to examine the relationship between online preventive searches on Google and the reduction in property crimes in the states of India. We use Poisson quasi-maximum likelihood estimation to analyze the panel dataset for four states on monthly frequency for the period 2017 to 2020. Our results indicate that preventive searches on Google are significantly related to reduced property crimes like Burglary, Robbery, and Theft. A one percent increase in preventive Google searches reduces property crimes by 0.37–0.60%. “Target Hardening” and “Formal Social Control” appear to be the highly correlated preventive inquiries, while “Surveillance” appear to be the least correlated. Our findings indicate that personal precautions are a much more reliable measure for preventing property-related crime than community-level measures. Our result remains robust for both the socially less progressive and highly progressive states. This study contributes to policy discussions by taking a new perspective, providing novel empirical evidence, and contributing to academia through its quantitative approach. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2023.