Virtual Environments for Rehabilitation of Gender Violence Offenders

ended

Domestic violence (DV) is a silent, prevalent, serious and preventable human rights abuse. Globally, 38% of all murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner. 30% of women have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime, with 8% of women over the age of 15 reporting that they have suffered DV in the previous year. Our Solution VRespect.Me is an immersive Virtual Reality experience that puts the DV offender in the place of the victim. The work is based on the very latest scientific research in cognitive neuroscience that has found that immersive Virtual Reality experiences can modify the socioperceptual processes that underlie the aggressive behaviours exhibited by perpetrators of DV. Research shows that abusive men typically have an inability to recognize fear in a woman’s face. But in our study, using the VRespect.Me, male domestic-violence offenders who embodied the verbally abused woman got significantly better at recognizing a woman’s fear. Essentially, they become more empathic. And a lack of empathy is one of the primary causes of domestic violence. VRespect.Me is currently being used to rehabilitate domestic violence offenders in Catalonia. In phase 1 we will: - Demonstrate the prototype to stakeholders across Europe and beyond. - Build a road map to bring the VRespect.Me to the market - Map the stakeholder environment Understand the different purchasing mechanisms in the field of rehabilitation of domestic violence offenders in different European markets - Identify the key target markets, develop a commercial strategy and update the business plan The Market: European governments spend an estimated 72 billion euros on the impact of domestic violence, with the overall cost to society an estimated 256 billion euros. VR is a booming industry, with the VR healthcare market estimated to reach 4billion euros by 2025. With VRespect.Me as our first product, we aim to position Virtual Bodyworks at the forefront of this fast-growing sector.