With a background in Adult and Children’s Social Care, Mandy Miranda, Associate Trainer at Cornerstone VR, discusses how virtual reality (VR) can tackle domestic abuse for children and young people.
Before becoming a VR Trainer and Facilitator at Cornerstone VR, Mandy worked in Adult and Children’s Social Care as a social worker for 30 years and helped victims, survivors and perpetrators throughout her career. From being a part of a Mental Health Team, Addiction Services, Homelessness, Children’s Services, Family Centres and Adult Teams, Mandy has always strived to deliver better outcomes.
For the 12-month period to year ending March 2025, the Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated that approximately 3.8 million people aged 16 years and over experienced domestic abuse in the previous year, equivalent to 7.8% of the population. This included an estimated 2.2 million women and 1.5 million men, with no statistically significant change in prevalence compared with the previous year.
More recent police-recorded data show that 834,256 offences were categorised as domestic abuse-related in England and Wales in the year ending March 2026, compared with 816,493 in the previous year. The Office for National Statistics cautions that police-recorded crime does not provide a reliable measure of the prevalence of domestic abuse or trends over time because changes in police recording practices can affect these figures. Nevertheless, the scale of both survey-estimated victimisation and police-recorded offences demonstrates that domestic abuse remains a significant issue in England and Wales.
For far too long the myth that domestic abuse is a private matter has been accepted across society. Domestic abuse is a crime that crosses all genders, cultures, sexualities, abilities and disabilities, age groups and socio-economic groups.
At Cornerstone VR, we strive to secure better outcomes for children across the country using transformational technology. We have been working with several organisations over the years to achieve this.
Previously Cornerstone VR delivered a VR pilot training programme to 48 front line officers across London’s Met Police Service to assist with its Domestic Abuse Improvement Programme. Officers were show two immersive VR experiences – the first from the point of view of a baby in utero and the second highlighted manipulation of police officers by a perpetrator, minimising the impact of the abuse and its impact on the child. These immersive VR experiences were used to simulate real-life situations, thereby raising awareness, increasing empathy, and challenging behavioural norms.
The outcomes achieved gave officers a deeper understanding of the child’s perspective, officers considered alternative ways to approach their work leading to increased understanding of the impacts of domestic abuse. VR training offers a different perspective of how much perpetrators behaviour, responses and decisions affect vulnerable children.
Through our work, we know first-hand that perpetrators can change their behaviour using VR. As part of our work with London Borough of Redbridge, our Virtual Reality technology was successful with perpetrators of domestic abuse to increase behaviour change and allow perpetrators of DA to experience their behaviour through the eyes of their children and partners.
Evidence from our work with London Borough of Redbridge identified that 85% of the perpetrators who took part in the VR study said it made them think differently about their behaviour. In the 14-months following their participation, 100% of the perpetrators had not been involved in any incidents relating to domestic abuse.
In addition to helping vulnerable members of society, Cornerstone VR has taken a proactive and supportive approach to enhance the understanding of staff members surrounding this topic and empowering them to empathise with victims in the workplace.
Acknowledging we all have a responsibility to provide a safe and effective work environment, at Cornerstone VR the managerial team have recently undergone training as a part of their duty of care to employees with the aim of ensuring that all staff are trained and prepared in identifying the early signs of abuse amongst colleagues, in order to provide the support network, they need to overcome challenging situations and rebuild their lives.
Here at Cornerstone VR, we believe that we have a collective responsibility to speak out against it, only then can we tackle it effectively.