Following the successful use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology to increase empathy and perspectives in adoption and fostering services, Antser began testing the use of its VR behaviour change programme in interventions used by Children’s Services, with perpetrators and survivors of domestic abuse, to understand its impact and effectiveness for changing attitudes and behaviours.

Antser has partnered with the London Borough of Redbridge to pilot the use of VR immersive storytelling as a tool to disrupt domestic abuse and improve outcomes for victims, children and perpetrators.

The findings were independently evaluated by Goldsmiths, University of London to discover if VR could be an effective tool in changing the life outcomes of families affected by domestic abuse through modifying the behaviour of perpetrators.

As part of our spotlight on the topic of domestic abuse, we are sharing our findings from this study, which compiles and evaluates interviews conducted by social care professionals with users of the virtual reality content (namely, perpetrators of domestic abuse) to understand whether VR is a valuable tool with which to augment existing interventions for helping families and individuals suffering the effects of domestic abuse.