Infamously, the jury members in The People of the State of California v. O.J. Simpson were taken to the scene of the crime. Traditionally, however, crime scene visits by jury members are extremely rare. The reasons for that are numerous—for example, the crime scene could be in a remote location, or an extremely busy one, or the site itself could have changed over time. Either way, jury visits are not considered practical.
But what if the jury could see the crime scene without actually traveling there? Thanks to the advent of virtual reality (VR), it’s possible to drop jurors into the middle of a car accident or murder scene. In a recent study, researchers at the University of South Australia have shown that not only is interactive technology in the courtroom possible, but it’s also preferable as it leads to fairer and more consistent verdicts.
“[Interactive technology] could indeed be the future of courtrooms,” said Andrew Cunningham, researcher at UniSA's Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments.
In the study, researchers, legal professionals, police and forensic scientists simulated a hit-and-run scene, reconstructing the events for mock jurors in two group: those using 3D headsets to view the crime scene, and those using traditional still photographs of the scene that are used in court today.
Both the virtual reality group and still photograph group were taken through a story about what transpired from the prosecution point of view as well as the defense. Then, they were asked to give a verdict.
Study participants viewing the scene through a 3D headset were 87 percent more likely to choose the same verdict (death by dangerous driving) than the group who relied on photographs—who were split 47 and 53 percent between a careless driving verdict and dangerous driving verdict.
"Participants who were immersed in the scene were more likely to correctly remember the location of the car in relation to the victim at the time of the accident, whereas it was difficult for people to visualize the scene from still images,” said Cunningham.
Overall, the study results indicate that the 30 mock jurors using VR technology had better recall, spatial accuracy and more consistent verdicts compared with the still photograph mock jurors.
The research team notes that virtual reality also required significantly less effort than using photographs to piece together the sequence of events.
“This [study] provides unequivocal evidence that interactive technology leads to fairer and more consistent verdicts,” concluded Cunningham.
Photo: Screenshot from the virtual reality crime scene shown to 30 study participants. Credit: UniSA.