PhD Student: Daisy Askew; Partner: Virtual Decisions; Supervisors: Dr. Stephanie Burnett Heyes, Dr. James Hodgkinson and Dr. Kate Woodcock; School of Psychology
Criminal gangs operating in local communities pose serious threats to young people, including exposure to violence, weapon-carrying, and recruitment into child criminal exploitation (CCE) such as ‘county lines’ drug transportation (HM Government, 2022). Gang involvement disproportionately affects disadvantaged youth (e.g. deprivation, poverty, family disruption) and is linked to significant harm (Frisby-Osman & Wood, 2020). Evidence-based interventions grounded in the science of behaviour are needed to address this issue.
Interactive virtual reality (VR) interventions developed via community theatre with youth consultation have potential to meet the criteria of an effective behavioural intervention. Prior research (Bilello et al., 2023) found that participants using VR experienced authentic emotions, gained experiential knowledge in a safe setting, and reported insights into gang dynamics, empathy, responsibility, and identity-shaping choices. This project will build on this prior work to evaluate the use of VR to address youth gang involvement and CCE using ‘Virtual Decisions: INFLUENCE’.
Virtual Decisions is a Birmingham-based CreaTech company that creates immersive educational VR experiences; these live-action scenarios allow young people to explore real-life scenarios and navigate consequences in a safe, trauma-informed setting. Following the experience, the young people have access to wraparound workshops which provide a safe space to talk about issues raised and the consequences of their virtual decisions.
This mixed-methods project, in collaboration with Virtual Decisions, aims to evaluate the use of VR and the workshops that accompany them as an early intervention for CCE and youth gang involvement. This will include a systematic review on the previous literature and the development of a logic model, both of which will inform a longitudinal evaluation of the impact of the intervention in an identified ‘at-risk’ sample in educational and legal settings.