Parsing JSON string in Java

See my comment. You need to include the full org.json library when running as android.jar only contains stubs to compile against.

In addition, you must remove the two instances of extra } in your JSON data following longitude.

   private final static String JSON_DATA =
     "{" 
   + "  \"geodata\": [" 
   + "    {" 
   + "      \"id\": \"1\"," 
   + "      \"name\": \"Julie Sherman\","                  
   + "      \"gender\" : \"female\"," 
   + "      \"latitude\" : \"37.33774833333334\"," 
   + "      \"longitude\" : \"-121.88670166666667\""
   + "    }," 
   + "    {" 
   + "      \"id\": \"2\"," 
   + "      \"name\": \"Johnny Depp\","          
   + "      \"gender\" : \"male\"," 
   + "      \"latitude\" : \"37.336453\"," 
   + "      \"longitude\" : \"-121.884985\""
   + "    }" 
   + "  ]" 
   + "}"; 

Apart from that, geodata is in fact not a JSONObject but a JSONArray.

Here is the fully working and tested corrected code:

import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONException;
import org.json.JSONObject;

public class ShowActivity {


  private final static String JSON_DATA =
     "{" 
   + "  \"geodata\": [" 
   + "    {" 
   + "      \"id\": \"1\"," 
   + "      \"name\": \"Julie Sherman\","                  
   + "      \"gender\" : \"female\"," 
   + "      \"latitude\" : \"37.33774833333334\"," 
   + "      \"longitude\" : \"-121.88670166666667\""
   + "    }," 
   + "    {" 
   + "      \"id\": \"2\"," 
   + "      \"name\": \"Johnny Depp\","          
   + "      \"gender\" : \"male\"," 
   + "      \"latitude\" : \"37.336453\"," 
   + "      \"longitude\" : \"-121.884985\""
   + "    }" 
   + "  ]" 
   + "}"; 

  public static void main(final String[] argv) throws JSONException {
    final JSONObject obj = new JSONObject(JSON_DATA);
    final JSONArray geodata = obj.getJSONArray("geodata");
    final int n = geodata.length();
    for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
      final JSONObject person = geodata.getJSONObject(i);
      System.out.println(person.getInt("id"));
      System.out.println(person.getString("name"));
      System.out.println(person.getString("gender"));
      System.out.println(person.getDouble("latitude"));
      System.out.println(person.getDouble("longitude"));
    }
  }
}

Here's the output:

C:\dev\scrap>java -cp json.jar;. ShowActivity
1
Julie Sherman
female
37.33774833333334
-121.88670166666667
2
Johnny Depp
male
37.336453
-121.884985

To convert your JSON string to hashmap you can make use of this :

HashMap<String, Object> hashMap = new HashMap<>(Utility.jsonToMap(response)) ;

Use this class :) (handles even lists , nested lists and json)

public class Utility {

    public static Map<String, Object> jsonToMap(Object json) throws JSONException {

        if(json instanceof JSONObject)
            return _jsonToMap_((JSONObject)json) ;

        else if (json instanceof String)
        {
            JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject((String)json) ;
            return _jsonToMap_(jsonObject) ;
        }
        return null ;
    }


   private static Map<String, Object> _jsonToMap_(JSONObject json) throws JSONException {
        Map<String, Object> retMap = new HashMap<String, Object>();

        if(json != JSONObject.NULL) {
            retMap = toMap(json);
        }
        return retMap;
    }


    private static Map<String, Object> toMap(JSONObject object) throws JSONException {
        Map<String, Object> map = new HashMap<String, Object>();

        Iterator<String> keysItr = object.keys();
        while(keysItr.hasNext()) {
            String key = keysItr.next();
            Object value = object.get(key);

            if(value instanceof JSONArray) {
                value = toList((JSONArray) value);
            }

            else if(value instanceof JSONObject) {
                value = toMap((JSONObject) value);
            }
            map.put(key, value);
        }
        return map;
    }


    public static List<Object> toList(JSONArray array) throws JSONException {
        List<Object> list = new ArrayList<Object>();
        for(int i = 0; i < array.length(); i++) {
            Object value = array.get(i);
            if(value instanceof JSONArray) {
                value = toList((JSONArray) value);
            }

            else if(value instanceof JSONObject) {
                value = toMap((JSONObject) value);
            }
            list.add(value);
        }
        return list;
    }
}