Therapeutic virtual reality in prison
Participatory design with incarcerated women
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12656451 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Melissa Q Teng (0000-0002-3051-0787, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, corresponding author), Eric Gordon (0000-0002-9989-4176, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 2210-2229 |
| Publication date | 2021-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Media & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1461444821993131 |
| OpenAlex | W3193909965 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 34 |
Upon release from prison, women face barriers in every step of their journey home, with most reentry services designed for men. With virtual reality (VR) headsets increasingly affordable and normalized as a mental health treatment modality, VR is being adopted by prisons around the United States. We argue that the risks and affordances of VR in this political context necessitate centering those with lived experience as creative agents to avoid designing media that re-traumatizes, reduces the complexities of reentry, and reproduces oppressive prisoner–guard dynamics. This article documents and analyzes the design process of a VR reentry program for a state prison to help incarcerated women practice responding to high-stress reentry situations, prior to their release. The resulting VR prototype draws on therapeutic VR work but takes a community-based participatory design approach. We conclude by discussing the institutional and cultural tensions of implementing a participatory design process in a US state prison system
Affordance · Citizen journalism · Context (archaeology · Criminology · Guard (computer science · Human–computer interaction · Mental health · Participatory design · Political science · Prison · Process (computing · Psychotherapist · Public relations · Sociology · Virtual reality · Computer Science · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Engineering · Psychology · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
Design, When Everybody Designs
Routledge International Handbook of Participatory Design
Adversarial Design
Agonistic participatory design
Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates
Trauma Exposure, Mental Health Functioning, and Program Needs of Women in Jail
Mothers' Reentry into Family Life Following Incarceration
When prisoners come home
Prisoner Reentry
Using 3D Worlds in Prison
Interpretive and Critical Phenomenological Crime Studies
Adverse Effects of US Jail and Prison Policies on the Health and Well-Being of Women of Color
The New Jim Crow
Gender, Crime, and Desistance
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2025 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |