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SLSS Hub team member E.O Adeola Babatunde will present at the 15th North South Criminology Conference. Her presentation titled 'A Rapid Review on the use of Virtual Reality in Youth Offending Risk Assessment' will take place on Tuesday 18th June

To effectively tackle offending, it is important to understand the risk and protective factors contributing to young people getting involved in crime or other equally delinquent behaviours. Murray and Farrington (2010) note that risk factors include personal traits, environmental characteristics, and family, school or community conditions linked to a youth's likelihood of delinquency. The task of identifying and measuring risk factors is easier said than done.

Traditional methods of measuring risk factors such as risk-taking and self-control do not currently depict real-life decision-making (Gottfredson & Hirschi 1990; de-Juan-Ripoll et al., 2020). The debate around how well traditional measures capture the true nature of the risk variables, and their susceptibility to social desirability for one has been a great concern for researchers.

Virtual Reality (VR) presents computer-generated 3D simulations of situations, environments, and experiences through a head-mounted display. With VR providing realistic simulations of the real world in a high-resolution 3D virtual environment, measuring the existence or absence of these risk factors in young people can now be done in a way that allows individuals to act and react naturally. VR measures combine the strengths of traditional measurement tools by providing room for more careful experimental control and increased ecological validity. This study aims to map existing evidence on the several types of VR technology used in youth offending risk assessment with emphasis on risk factors related to the six dimensions of self-control put forward by Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990). 

The conference takes place June 17th-19th in Queens University Belfast & Ulster University. Further details can be found here: