‘It's all about the preparation’. Virtual reality courtroom for survivors of sexual violence: a case study

ABSTRACT

This exploratory case study examined the effect of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) for a survivor of sexual violence (SV) as a preparation for a court hearing. Five sessions of VRET were completed before the court hearing, and one follow-up session was completed after the trial. In-depth interviews were conducted after each session for detailed assessment about the effects of therapy and first-hand experience of preparing for court. The participant said that the VRET sessions helped her prepare for court, gave an increased sense of control, and allowed her to manage emotions and bodily reactions. The trial itself and preparing for it was seen as an important part of the recovery process, where social support played an important role. VRET appears to be a promising preparation method for SV survivors taking their cases to court. More research is needed to standardize and improve the quality of VRET and examine how it can be combined with other sources of support.

KEYWORDS:

• Virtual reality exposure therapy
• sexual violence
• case study
• qualitative interview
• courtroom

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the members of the company Statum (Edit Ómarsdóttir, Hafdís Sæland and Helga Margrét Ólafsdóttir) for conceiving of and creating the virtual reality environment. The authors would also like to thank the Icelandic National police commissioner, Sigríður Björk Guðjónsdóttir, and staff member of the National police commissioner's office, Rannveig Þórisdóttir, for assistance and support during this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics statement

Ethical approval was received from the National Bioethics Committee (NBC) in Iceland (VSN-20-061). The data are based on interviews with one research participant and will therefore not be made available to the public, to protect anonymity.

Data availability statement

The data are not publicly available as it could compromise the privacy of the research participant. Therefore, due to the sensitive nature of research supporting data is not available.

Notes

1 Statistics on attrition rates in criminal cases in Iceland throughout the criminal justice procedure are not readily available in Iceland. The study by Antonsdóttir and Gunnlaugsdóttir (2013) is the most recent study in Iceland that tracks the outcome of all reported rape cases nation-wide.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by a research grant from the Icelandic Gender Equality Fund (Grant Number 200224-5501) to Rannveig Sigurvinsdottir.