Virtual Reality (VR) as a tool in offender rehabilitation

Digitalisation is a process that surrounds citizens on a daily basis and shapes the way they communicate, work and access public services

As a state authority, the Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation has an additional responsibility to monitor technological development and ensure that the services it provides are available, efficient and adapted to the modern needs of society.
 
In particular, digital transformation allows for greater transparency, faster processes and better connection with citizens, thus strengthening trust in the work of state authorities and contributing to a more modern society.
 
That digital tools are really permeating all areas of social activity is best demonstrated by the fact that they will soon be actively applied in the work of the prison system, or more specifically, the Probation System Development Service operating within the Central Office for Probation of the Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation.
 
Probation officers have namely recognised the importance and numerous benefits of virtual reality (VR) both in the training of officers and in offender rehabilitation.
 
‘VR is a tool we have used to simulate as realistically as possible specific real-life situations and enable offenders to develop their skills in a safe environment, where they can make mistakes without real consequences’, explained Head of the Probation System Development Service and Erasmus+ projects coordinator Vesna Zelić Ferenčić at the presentation of the Erasmus+ projects.
 
In 2025, the Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation also won the European Innovative Teaching Award (EITA), a prestigious award for exceptional Erasmus+ projects, for the project 'Virtual reality in the context of treatment skills', which developed VR software and training scenarios for the training of probation and prison officers.

Digitalisation in the service of probation - chronology

 
In the beginnings of the existence of probation service, probation was offered as an alternative to serving the prison sentence and one of the solutions to the problem of overcrowding of the prison system, but in modern democratic societies it represents a significant segment of criminal justice and offers much more than its initially intended function - an alternative to prison.
 
With the expansion of its role in Croatia, the requirements for modernisation and improvement of the probation service have also been increasing. The first steps in the implementation of new technologies in the performance of probation tasks were made in 2017. In fact, in that year, the EU Transition Facility project ‘Support to further development and strengthening of the probation service in Croatia’ piloted an electronic monitoring project.

Following up on the positive results of the pilot project, the permanent implementation of electronic monitoring was initiated under the project ‘Strengthening human rights protection and public safety by improving the capacities of the Croatian probation service’, financed under the Norwegian Financial Mechanism. Electronic monitoring equipment was acquired, the Monitoring Centre was set up and equipped, and two regulations were adopted governing its application in cases of conditional release and pretrial home detention.
 
In 2022, the first offender was released on probation under electronic monitoring, while in 2024, the first pretrial detainee was placed under electronic monitoring.
 
In 2021, under the ESF-funded project ‘Improving the quality of the judiciary by strengthening the capacities of prison and probation system and victim and witness support system’, digital tools were introduced in the training of probation officers. Probation officers were trained and encouraged to use digital tools and various e-learning systems.
 
A further step in the introduction of new technologies was the Erasmus+ project "Virtual reality in the context of treatment skills".

When resocialization encounters VR headset

 
Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology that allows a user to immerse themselves in a computer-generated three-dimensional environment in which they can interactively explore and experience the virtual world as if it were real.
 
In the work of the probation service, VR is used as a tool for simulating different real life situations and practicing behaviour in controlled conditions, with the absence of various sources of risk and negative consequences.
 
The real life situations include the areas of financial management, family/partnership relations, relationships with colleagues and a problem situation in traffic, related to a train delay.
 
Using a VR headset, the offender is placed in one of the four problem situations, for which there are several different options available. The pre-developed scenario guides the offender through the situation by offering correct and incorrect answers, and thus making it a learning experience.
 
VR content is designed to develop problem-solving skills, as the lack of such skills is in fact one of the most common criminogenic risks, so their development is crucial for rehabilitation.


Professor Ioan Durnescu from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, the author of the book Core Correctional Skills, joined the Croatian project team and probation officers in the development of VR scenarios and content.
 
The officers of the Zagreb I and Zagreb II probation offices participated in the production of VR content by assuming the roles of both offenders and probation officers, and by offering examples from their daily practice they significantly contributed to the design and authenticity of VR materials.
 
Since VR content is focused on conversational skills, it was recorded with 360° cameras, so that the VR protagonist, as a witness of the conversation between an offender and a probation officer, can turn around and observe the conversation in the probation office. In order to create more interactive content, questions pop up during that conversation that the protagonist needs to answer.
 
Questions are related to the conversation and require the use of various knowledge, skills and competencies, and there is a scoring system which is visible to the protagonist only, thus adding a competitive dimension to the VR experience, in addition to the interactive one.
 
Working with criminal offenders requires a continuous and pronounced need for the adjustment and individualisation of all interventions, approaches and methods so that probation officers can adapt as much as possible to the specific needs (and risks) of each individual offender. The probation service is therefore open to different approaches and uses different evidence-based practices such as scientific research results.

Investment in people generates the greatest value

 
Virtual Reality is part of a broader Erasmus+ project that advocates, among other things, adult education and training, and aims to improve work with offenders by introducing VR into rehabilitation, improve the core competencies of officers, and develop an international and multi-agency stakeholder network to further develop VR in offender rehabilitation.
 
Such projects are not just administrative tasks, they are investments in people, primarily officers who do hard work on a daily basis. Every new piece of knowledge, new skill and cooperation resulting from such a project is returned to society through better offender treatment work, more successful rehabilitation and a safer community, because investment in people generates the greatest value.