Virtual Reality Brings Jurors To Crime Scenes

The European Commission has awarded Staffordshire University researchers a $200,000 grant to develop ways to present crime scene evidence to juries using virtual reality. “A number of novel, digital non-invasive methods [have the] potential … to permit access to difficult and/or dangerous environments, create a more accurate record of buried or concealed evidence and provide more effective means of presenting evidence in court,” said Caroline Sturdy Colls, a forensic archeology and genocide investigation professor who is leading the project. A National Institute for Trial Advocacy analysis published in 2001 outlined pros and cons to incorporating virtual reality. “If compensation for fear, anxiety, peril, or the like are at issue, lawyers may want the jury to feel what the plaintiff or defendant felt,” the article states. However, virtual reality can be so realistic, “that occasionally it induces motion sickness.” There is also the potential of creating unfair prejudice, the authors note.