Through her eyes: could virtual reality help police protect women and girls from violence?

The UK statistics could not be starker and more shocking – a man kills a woman every three days, more than 100,00 serious sexual offences recorded every year and one in five crimes in England and Wales involves violence against women and girls. 

Following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer in 2021 and subsequent public outrage, the UK police have now made tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) a national security priority on the same level as terrorism.

The Sarah Everard case sparked a nationwide debate about the sexist organisational culture that could be found within policing and exposed systemic problems that disproportionately affect women.

While police may be one of first responders in cases of VAWG – it is not just an issue for them. It is a public health crisis that requires a joined-up approach between the police, social services, NHS and increasingly the use of technology.

A new initiative using virtual reality (VR) has the potential to enable police officers to experience the same fear that many women and girls feel every day. Walking home in the dark, being followed on the street, trying to get a cab late at night. 

Surveys show that half of women in the UK feel unsafe walking alone after dark even if it is near to where they live. Among young women (16–34), 60% have faced harassment in public spaces.

For many men, it is hard to imagine what this feels like. That is why VR trainings like CurfewVR were developed: to bridge this empathy gap by letting officers experience the world as women do.

By immersing officers in first-person simulations based on real women’s stories, the training aims to build empathy and improve responses to violence against women and girls. It allows police officers to view the world through women’s and girls’ eyes for the first time, walking them through various risky or dangerous situations in everyday locations.

Unlike traditional classroom lessons, this training is built on the real stories from women aged 16–86. Their stories of harassment, intimidation, and fear were turned into interactive VR scenarios.

Every choice matters. A “wrong” response leads to negative consequences, while safe decisions guide them through more smoothly – yet the simulations demonstrate how certain unsettling situations are unavoidable. And because the programmes can use both AI-driven characters and live participants such as other fellow officers, no two experiences are the same.

However, the real test of whether this training has any impact is what happens afterwards. In feedback and reflective sessions, police officers were asked how the training changed their views and how it would change their behaviour. 

One senior participant explained that after the experience they started to provide personal feedback via text messages to those who report incidents. This practise was not previously customary, but the VR simulation made them realise the importance of keeping victims informed.

Another officer said: 

“An insight I’ve never had before – I’ve never experienced the world as a woman does.”

For him, as a father of a young daughter, the training hit especially close to home.

The use of VR in policing started several years ago. The Metropolitan Police assessed technology that enabled them to witness domestic violence from the perspective of an unborn child. Frontline police officers said that the experience gave them a unique insight into abuse that they did not previously have.

With VR equipment becoming more affordable the police are looking to use it more frequently. The Police Education Consortium, led by Middlesex University, is already collaborating with partners to embed VR into police apprenticeship training programme.

Using virtual reality to help the police understand what women and other vulnerable individuals face will hopefully help they respond more effectively. Hopefully, women and girls will have more faith and trust in the police, and our streets will be safer.

Author

Boglárka Meggyesfalvi is a criminologist and child protection expert at Middlesex University. She researches online child safety, emerging technologies and victimisation, and lectures at multiple universities.