"Just before". Intimate partner violence: Virtual reality and a new focus for perpetrators' motivation for treatment

The Istanbul Convention (art. 16) regulates interventions to prevent and combat male violence against women, stressing the need for intervention to reduce perpetrators’ recidivism. In this research the paternal function is a motivating factor for treatment that facilitates men's access to the awareness of their violence on children, especially when they are put into their shoes. In this case virtual immersive reality becomes an efficient tool as it can transfer the user and his emotionality into the world of the victims. To explore the impact on the recognition of responsibility for one's own violent actions on the other and on the motivation for treatment, forty-six men participated in ViDaCS serious game, involving a virtual scene of a couple a moment before the outburst of negative emotions takes over, first in the role of a man, then in that of a child who witnesses the scene. Quanti-qualitative questionnaires and focused interviews were administered to participants. Data were respectively analysed with frequency analysis and thematic analysis. Results allowed the men who have lived the scene to access emotional contents and experiences, demonstrating the effectiveness of VR (Virtual Reality) in creating a trigger in the man's awareness and his internal motivation to change.