Virtual Burglary Project

Virtual Burglary Project

The Virtual Burglary Project is a research program co-headed by Prof. Claire Nee (University of Portsmouth) and involves a collaboration with researchers from Leiden University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The Virtual Bur­glary Project uses a VR approach to better understand the behavior of residential burglars and to contribute to crime prevention. Data collections occur in Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Research within the Virtual Burglary Project uses virtual reality versions of residential neighborhoods and houses that are developed to study the different ways in which burglars operate when they are “on the job.” Incarcerated burglars, and sometimes others, are invited to explore a virtual neighborhood for burglary opportunities or to com­mit a burglary in VR. In both cases, the participants are instructed to go about the activity just as they would do in real life. The VR system tracks their behavior—such as gaze and spatial patterns, which target they select, which entry points they use, and how they go about committing a burglary once inside the target—in real time. In combi­na­tion with the experimental variation of relevant features of the environment, such as street lighting, alarm systems, signage, or the presence/absence of avatars, this approach provides novel insights into burglary behavior.

 

Selected Publications

Van Sintemaartensdijk, I., Van Gelder, J.-L., Van Prooijen, J.-W., Nee, C., Otte, M., & Van Lange, P. (2020). Mere presence of informal guardians deters burglars: a virtual reality study. Journal of Experimental Criminology. doi:10.1007/s11292-020-09430-1
Meenaghan, A., Nee, C., Van Gelder, J.-L., Vernham, Z., & Otte, M. (2020). Expertise, Emotion and Specialization in the Development of Persistent Burglary. The British Journal of Criminology, 60(3), 742–761. doi:10.1093/bjc/azz078
Nee, C., Van Gelder, J.-L., Otte, M., Vernham, Z., & Meenaghan, A. (2019). Learning on the job: Studying expertise in residential burglars using virtual environments. Criminology. doi:10.1111/1745-9125.12210

 

Virtual Burglary Project

Research using a VR approach to better understand the behavior of residential burglars (4:40)

Podcasts

The Virtual Burglary Project: Using VR to study crime in American prisons – Part 1

Guest: Patrick McClanahan • 05/2023
In this episode Christopher Murphy talks with Patrick McClanahan about late-stage results from the Virtual Burglary Project. The chal­lenges involved in conducting field work in prisons will also be broached, with Patrick providing some personal reflections about what worked well, what could have been done better, and ideas and lessons for the future. This is part one of a double episode.

The Virtual Burglary Project: Using VR to study crime in American prisons – Part 2

Guest: Patrick McClanahan • 05/2023
In this episode Christopher Murphy talks with Patrick McClanahan about late-stage results from the Virtual Burglary Project. The chal­lenges involved in conducting field work in prisons will also be broached, with Patrick providing some personal reflections about what worked well, what could have been done better, and ideas and lessons for the future. This is part two of a double episode.

The Virtual Burglary Project & Cybersickness

Guests: Dominik Gerstner & Dr. Peter Wozniak • 10/2021
In this episode Christopher Murphy discusses the Virtual Burglary Project, looking at how virtual reality can be used to measure deci­sion-making and percep­tion processes in a computer-generated environment. The tech­nical challenges involved in making a seam­less virtual world are also covered.

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