Using virtual reality in criminological research

Gelder, Jean‐Louis van; Otte, Marco; Luciano, Eva C.

doi:10.1186/s40163-014-0010-5

Cited by 49 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The use of this immersive technique has the benefits of (i) reducing the influence of researcher questioning, as participants are required to freely respond to contextual cues, and (ii) eliciting more genuine and valid responses, as participants are immersed in the environment rather than relying on their imagination (Van Gelder et al, 2016). It also addresses one of the main challenges of criminology, by allowing us to get far closer to observing real world behavior in an ethical manner, whilst also increasing the motivation of participants to share their experiences, skills and motivations for committing crime and/or burglary (Van Gelder, Luciano & Otte, 2014).…”

Section: The Use Of the Virtual Enactment Methods -Benefits Over Lessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting Closer to the Action: Using the Virtual Enactment Method to Understand Burglary

et al. 2018

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In this paper we describe a new method, the Virtual Enactment Method (VEM), to enhance offender recall and motivation to disclose information by having burglars reflect on their experience while committing a crime in a simulated virtual environment. Participants, a sample of 61 incarcerated burglars, 'thought aloud' whilst undertaking a virtual burglary. Following the 'virtual' burglary, emerging themes were expanded upon in an interview. We show that the simulated environment effectively reinstates the criminogenic event, increases engagement, enhances recall, and encourages participants to talk more openly about their experiences, skills and knowledge.

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Section: The Use Of the Virtual Enactment Methods -Benefits Over Lessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting Closer to the Action: Using the Virtual Enactment Method to Understand Burglary

et al. 2018

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“…For example, studies on treatment effectiveness for people suffering from specific phobias have shown that VR-based exposure treatment can be as effective as traditional forms of exposure therapy (Parsons and Rizzo 2008;Powers and Emmelkamp 2008). Importantly, findings from VR research suggest that virtual environments can be usefully employed as substitutes for real-world settings when practical or ethical considerations militate against using their real-life equivalents, as behavior in virtual environments can closely mimic behavior in comparable real-world settings (Slater et al 2006(Slater et al 2013Van Gelder, Otte, and Luciano 2014).…”

Section: Virtual Reality As a Research Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtual Burglary

Gelder

Nee

Otte³

et al. 2016

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

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Objectives. This article explores the potential of virtual reality to study burglary by measuring user responses on the subjective, physiological and behavioral levels. Furthermore, it examines the influence of individual dispositions, such as sensation seeking and self-control, on behavior during a virtual burglary event. Methods. Participants, male university undergraduates (N=77), could freely move around a virtual neighborhood wearing a virtual reality headset and using a game controller, and were instructed to burgle one of the houses in the neighborhood. Participant movement, items stolen from the house, and heart rate were recorded throughout the burglary event. Individual dispositions were measured before, and subjective user responses were measured after, the event. Additionally, we experimentally varied whether there was an alarm sounding, and participants' beliefs about the chance of getting caught (deterrence). Results. Participants reacted subjectively to the burglary event by reporting high levels of presence in the virtual environment and physiologically by showing increased heart rates. In terms of behavior, high deterrence resulted in fewer items being stolen and a shorter burglary. Furthermore, sensation seekers stole more valuable items, while participants high in conscientiousness stole fewer items. Conclusions. The results suggest that virtual environments have substantial potential for studying criminal behavior. 2 Watching burglars in action would be an excellent way to increase our knowledge of burglary. In practice this is only rarely possible, however, and even less so in a controlled setting that allows for systematic study. By virtue of its illegal nature, burglary, analogous to other serious offenses, occurs out of sight and hence is hard to observe and examine 'in the wild'. Even in those cases that would allow for direct observation, ethical considerations generally militate against it. Consequently, our knowledge of burglary relies in large part either on studies examining targeting patterns and target characteristics, or on studies using retrospective methods, such as offender interviews and surveys. The former type of research has yielded crucial insights on areas where burglaries are likely to take place (e.g., Johnson and Bowers, 2004; Townsley, Homel and Chaseling, 2003) and offending trajectories taken (e.g., Bernasco, 2010), but offers little in the way of burglar decision-making processes while committing the offense (Coupe, in press; Wright and Decker, 1994). Interview studies have provided valuable insights into offender decision-making (e.g.,

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“…To enhance the ecological validity of laboratory studies, researchers have recently advocated the use of virtual reality technologies (van Gelder, Otte, & Luciano, 2014). For example, in a recent study, Slater et al (2013) simulated an immersive barroom fight and found evidence that social group membership may increase the likelihood of bystander intervention.…”

Section: Experiments: Laboratory and Field Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capturing violence in the night-time economy: A review of established and emerging methodologies

Philpot

Liebst

Møller

et al. 2019

Aggression and Violent Behavior

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Night-time economy (NTE) leisure zones, while providing local economic growth and positive social experiences, are hotspots for urban public violence. Research aimed at better understanding and thus reducing this violence has employed a range of empirical methods: official records, self-reports, experiments, and observational techniques. In this paper, we review the applications of these methodologies for analyzing NTE violence on key research dimensions, including mapping incidents across time and space; interpreting the motivations and meaning of violence; identifying social psychological background variables and health consequences; and the ability to examine mid-violent interactions. Further, we assess each method in terms of reliability, validity, and the potential for establishing causal claims. We demonstrate that there are fewer and less established methodologies available for examining the interactional dynamics of NTE violence. Using real-life NTE bystander intervention as a case example, we argue that video-based behavioral analysis is a promising method to address this gap. Given the infancy and relative lack of exposure of the video observational method, we provide recommendations for scholars interested in adopting this technique.

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Using virtual reality in criminological research

Cited by 49 publications

References 40 publications

Getting Closer to the Action: Using the Virtual Enactment Method to Understand Burglary

Getting Closer to the Action: Using the Virtual Enactment Method to Understand Burglary

Virtual Burglary

Capturing violence in the night-time economy: A review of established and emerging methodologies

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