Walking Through Hell and Back: How Virtual Reality Is Helping to Solve Sexual Assault Problems

"There is no better way to explain a feeling than to really immerse somebody in a situation."

- Morgan Mercer, Vantage Point Founder

(Bacchi, 2018)

Virtual reality (VR) simulation has significantly advanced over the days of walking on cliffs, riding roller coasters, or walking among the dinosaurs, as we often see it portrayed on television and in games. The current innovations with VR have dramatically changed the landscape of play and education. Today, virtual reality simulation makes it possible to help survivors who have experienced sexual violence and can help train all others about this real-world problem. As part of a mission to create awareness about sexual violence, two-time sexual violence survivor Morgan Mercer, founded Vantage Point, a 360-degree immersive virtual reality simulation that is based in San Francisco.

A Device that Promotes Empathy

The thought of donning a headset to invoke real-life sexual assault scenarios can be terrifying. According to Mercer, "Vantage Point focuses on identifying and changing stigma and bias, bystander intervention (passive and active), response training, reaction training, and on sexual harassment identification" (Catanzariti, 2017). Since VR provides an immersive experience, it's a powerful medium that could help evoke empathy in individuals and create a sense of meaning and connection. Additionally, when people feel like they have a measure of control, they are more likely to be engaged because they can create meaning from their interactions (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018). VR helps give social issues such as sexual violence a broader narrative impact, allowing individuals to empathize with these challenging topics. For example, The BeAnotherLab is a collective aimed at creating a "more empathic world" through VR simulation and what they call embodied virtual reality. The term "embodied virtual reality" is essentially the idea of seeing the world through another person's lens (Doyle, 2020). The use of VR to explore social issues such as sexual violence is still in its infancy stages. Still, it so far has been an effective tool used to create meaning and connections for people directly or indirectly involved with sexual violence.

Virtually Shifting The Statistics

In 2018, 81% of women and 43% of men in America reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime (Kearl, 2018). A 2018 report for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) stated that there were 23.2 violent victimizations per 1,000 U.S. residents age 12 or older. Moreover, between 1993-2018, the rate of violent victimization reported to police declined 71%, which went from 33.8 to 9.9 victimizations reported to police per 1,000 persons age 12 or older (Morgan & Oudekerk, 2019). The decline in victimization reporting illustrates that the rape culture in America blames the victim for the crime set upon them and teaches victims that their bodies and feelings do not matter. According to psychotherapist Beverly Engel, "Victims are often too ashamed to come forward. Sexual assault is a very humiliating and dehumanizing act against someone." Engel continues to state that the reason victims blame themselves is that "Attached to that shame is a lot of self-blame [. . .] because in our culture, we tend to blame victims in general" (Kimbal & Chettiar, 2018). Vantage Point 360 places users in real-life situations where they can choose reaction or action settings. Such training simulation is used in a safe space so that it can be effectively controlled when triggers happen for those directly affected. A component of VR that is highly effective for training is that it provides the opportunity to give direct feedback in these safe training spaces. The use of feedback as a tool helps learners achieve goals that would have otherwise been challenging without this positive reinforcement (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018). Mercer's vision with Vantage Point 360 as an immersive work training and education tool is to promote a shift in mentality to create an attitude change about the stigma of sexual assault and harassment (Catanzariti, 2017). It is not just considered a purely recreational device but also an important tool to foster empowerment through avatars that elicit more emotional responses to social issues like sexual violence.

VR Motivates Victims and Perpetrators To See Eye-To-Eye

Though survivors do not have control over their sexual violence encounter, virtual reality is used to help bring awareness to social issues by giving survivors a sense of control during the simulation. The creator of a virtual reality documentary on survivors of sexual assault, Zohar Kfir, believes VR is the perfect tool for facilitating this healing process because it provides a starting point for the artist to construct a world from (Knoepp, 2018). VR training is highly effective because it forces the user to work toward growth. Mercer says VR's immersive nature makes it difficult for users to mentally disengage while in the training program. Perhaps, this is because the user may be motivated by curiosity which Reiser and Dempsey (2018) suggest has to do with the desire to fill in any perceived gaps in their knowledge due to unanswered questions (p. 80). The use of VR to help tackle sexual violence awareness and training allows people to immerse in realms that would otherwise be considered impossible to reach and imagine with lecture-based training alone. For example, in Spain, VR technology is being used to rehabilitate perpetrators by letting them experience what it's like to be on the other end of their abuse (Bacchi, 2018). VR is an effective tool to help with social issues because it allows the user to be close to the action. The best way to understand the other is to essentially "walk in another person's shoes," and VR simulation is helping to create these narratives that motivate people to see eye-to-eye with their actions or the actions of another person.

Conclusion

Even with the numerous benefits VR technology offers, there are still many issues to consider when using this type of technology to tackle social issues like sexual violence awareness. As VR becomes more mainstream, there is still a slew of obstacles that must be understood. Apart from the cost associated with using such technology, there is always the question of effectiveness when exposing people to simulated scenarios versus how they perceive their situation in real life should they reencounter violent situations. Another concern is, what are the potential side effects for people who experience negative emotions? All these questions still must be answered. There is no doubt that different life experiences form different understandings of dialogue about sexual violence. Virtual reality can help with social issues by helping people experience them as they would in real life. Overall, VR simulation allows people to build a strong emotional connection to the narrative and thus gain more empathy and understanding about the global issue and impact of sexual violence.

References

Bacchi, U. (2018, August 31). Virtual reality tackles real-life sex abuse. Reuters. Retrieved November 12, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tech-vr-harassment-idUSKCN1LG0KK.

Catanzariti, P. (2017, November 22). This group is using 360 video and VR to help stop sexual harassment. Dev Diner. Retrieved November 10, 2021, from https://devdiner.com/virtual-reality/using-360-video-and-vr-to-help-stop-sexual-harassment#:~:text=%E2%80%9CVantage%20Point%20is%20a%20comprehensive%20sexual%20harassment%20training,training%2C%20reaction%20training%2C%20and%20on%20sexual%20harassment%20identification.%E2%80%9D.

Doyle, D. (2020). Empathy VR and the BeAnotherLab collective. Virtual Creativity, 10(2), 191–200. https://doi-org.oclc.fullsail.edu/10.1386/vcr_00032_1

International Business Times. (2013, July 23). Rape Laws In Dubai Are Awful, But So Is Rape Culture In America. International Business Times.

Kearl, H. (2018). The facts behind the #metoo movement: A national study on sexual harassment and assault. Stop Street Harassment.

Kimbal, C., & Chettiar, I. M. (2018, October 4). Sexual assault remains dramatically underreported. Sexual Assault Remains Dramatically Underreported. Retrieved November 10, 2021, from https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/sexual-assault-remains-dramatically-underreported.

Knoepp L. Survivors Share Testimonies On New VR Sexual Assault Database. Forbes.com. January 2018:1. Accessed November 9, 2021. https://search-ebscohost-com.oclc.fullsail.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=127125326&site=ehost-live

Morgan, R., & Oudekerk, B. (2019). Criminal victimization, 2018 (NCJ 253043). U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2018). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology. Pearson Education.