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Knife Crime Virtual Reality Experience

  • Gabriele Malvisi

Through a design-led approach that places emerging technology at the forefront, We Are Freak has sought to create and implement a technological response to the knife crime challenge. The project consisted in designing a state of the art educational tool to support traditional teaching methods by enabling participants to experience the brutality of a knife crime attack in a safe and controlled environment like the one of Virtual Reality. The decision of using a VR platform was strongly preferred for different reasons including the accessibility of the format, its ability to generate empathy and its propensity to increase participant motivation and consequently improve learning outcomes. Our goal was to positively contribute to a reduction of offence rates related to knife crime through the achievement of two main objectives: raise awareness over increasingly pressing issues such as gang culture and inform users about the dangers, risks and consequences associated with knife crime.

KCE was part of Mutive' project portfolio - We Are Freak's sister company - and operated in the field of emerging technology within the healthcare and educational sector.
We embarked on this project initially by carrying out in-depth researches to adequately comprehend the social and financial impact of knife crime. Demographics and trends were scrupulously analysed and an estimation of the financial costs of combating knife crime was calculated subdividing the numbers into three groups: costs of anticipation of crime, costs as a consequence of crime and costs in response to crime.

Researches also indicated that our target user were teenagers and schools, pupil referral units and youth groups to be the places to reach out to them.
In the following phase, we looked at the different ways the problem has been address by some leading organisations. We engaged with a variety of NGOs and charities and talked about their experience understanding how they are actively responding to the emergency and the impact their operations have had.
Activating Creative Talent (ACT) was one of the charity organisations we talked to and collaborated with throughout the project.
The next step required us to conduct an extensive research to conclude whether and in what measure emerging technologies like Virtual Reality are having a quantifiable impact on similar issues across the world. Drawing on these findings and academic studies we moved on to designing what was in our minds. After an initial development of the core ideas and main objectives of the Knife Crime Virtual Reality Experience (KCE), we set out to identify any potential risks.
'Becoming Homeless: A Human Experience' is the title of a groundbreaking study from Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. The 7 minutes VR experience shows people what is like to lose one's job and home, ending up in the streets and can be downloaded for free on the VHIL website.
With the support of a variety of professional figures we began developing the user’s narrative and applied interactive features. In simplified terms, these features typical of the gaming industry generate higher user engagement and thus greater expected outcomes. Taking advantage of the endless possibilities offered by VR technology we ultimately elaborated an immersive and compelling visual design and a first draft of the user journey.
Although the project received numerous appreciations from the many figures involved, due to a lack of fundings and other insurmountable complications we had to take the difficult decision to put it on hold until further notice.
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