Virtual Burglary: Using Virtual Reality to Study Burglary in Action

• In Event: New Approaches to Understanding Property Crime

Abstract

The Virtual Burglary Project explores the potential of virtual reality to study burglary in action by measuring user responses on the subjective, physiological and behavioral levels during a virtual burglary event. Participants ( 77 male university undergraduates) could freely move around a virtual house wearing a virtual reality headset (Oculus Rift) and using a game controller, and were instructed to burgle this house. Participant movement, items stolen from the house, and heart rate were recorded throughout the burglary event. Individual dispositions (e.g., sensation-seeking, self-control) were measured before, and subjective user responses were measured after, the event. Additionally, it was experimentally varied whether there was an alarm sounding, and participants’ beliefs about the chance of getting caught (deterrence). Participants reacted subjectively to the burglary event by reporting high levels of presence in the virtual environment and physiologically by showing increased heart rates. In terms of behavior, personality affected successful outcomes in burglary. Results suggest that virtual environments have substantial potential for studying criminal behavior. Preliminary results of a study using virtual reality to study the influence of guardianship on deterrence in actual burglars will be discussed.

Authors

• Iris van Sintemaartensdijk, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement/ VU University

• Jean-Louis van Gelder, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement

• Claire Nee, University of Portsmouth

• Marco Otte, VU University Amsterdam

• Jan-Willem van Prooijen, VU University/ Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement