Call for papers: Confronting Violence: Exploring the Psychosocial Dynamics of Gender-Based Aggression

Call for papers:

Confronting Violence: Exploring the Psychosocial Dynamics of Gender-Based Aggression

Special Edition of The Journal of Psychosocial Studies

The recent report by the National Police Chief’s Council on Violence against Women and Girls has once again highlighted the critical nature of this issue. Declaring the scale of the problem as a national emergency, comparable to terrorism, the report underscores alarming statistics: one in six homicides in England and Wales is linked to domestic abuse, and 20% of all police-recorded crimes—over one million offences annually—are categorized as violence against women and girls. These offences include sexual assault, stalking, harassment, domestic violence, and controlling and coercive behaviour, with the true total estimated to be twice as high.

We believe that psychosocial perspectives are essential for understanding gender-based violence, as it is deeply rooted in social and cultural contexts and lives within the intimate worlds of both perpetrators and victims. We seek articles that engage with the inseparable interplay between psychological and social factors, and offer fresh insights into the complex dynamics that drive these harmful behaviours.

Particular topics that might be included are (for example):

• Sexual assault and rape
• Stalking
• Coercion and control
• Institutional misogyny
• INCELS
• Online abuse and misogyny
• Domestic abuse
• The impact of abuse and violence
• Preventing VAWG
• Harassment
• Violence in Schools
• Policing and VAWG
• Intergenerational impacts of abuse and violence

We can publish both formal research papers (that would need to be written in the expected style and sent out for independent review) and open space articles (less formal articles, that might be based on personal experiences and reflection that might take the form of prose, poetry, visual art).

Details are here: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/jps/jps-overview.xml?tab_body=instructions-for-authors

Interested contributors should:  

Send an abstract of around 500 words to  Pete Harris (p00096516@brookes.ac.uk) by Friday 17^th January 2025. Please make it clear which type of paper you hope to submit. We are likely to be expecting draft of selected papers to be submitted around November 2025.You will be informed within one month of receipt whether we invite the full submission.  Interested contributors are welcome to contact us with queries.

Special Edition Editors

Jane Meyrick – University of West of England (Jane.Meyrick@uwe.ac.uk)

David Gadd – University of Manchester (david.gadd@manchester.ac.uk

Peter Harris –  Oxford Brookes University (p00096516@brookes.ac.uk)

David W Jones – The open university (david.jones@open.ac.uk)

Ioanna Gouseti – Oxford Brookes University (p0096557@brookes.ac.uk)

There are more details about the journal here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/journals/journal-of-psychosocial-studies