“Understanding, Predicting and Preventing Violence”
A Special Issue of European Psychologist
Violence is a major public health threat that has long attracted the interest of psychological research and practice. This special issue of European Psychologist seeks to take stock of current knowledge and set the agenda for future research in this area. This is particularly timely in a phase in which psychology as a discipline is facing the challenge of critically (re-)examining the robustness of findings that have the potential for informing policy making, and thus impact on a societal level.
To achieve this goal, this special issue aims to curate a collection of cutting-edge review and integrative articles to synthesize the state-of-the-art and shape the directions of future research, with the ultimate intent of increasing our ability to understand, prevent, and reduce violence and its impact on victims, survivors, perpetrators, and society at large.
In order to provide a comprehensive synthesis, articles in the special issue will be selected to ensure a diversity of contributions, spanning across different forms of violence, various theoretical frameworks, and diverse populations and cultures.
Topics
Sample topics may include (but are not limited to): Intimate partner violence; sexual harassment and sexual violence (or gender-based violence more generally); environmental influences on violent behavior (e.g., parenting, peer relationships); personality traits and personality disorders related to violence (or more generally, psychopathology); development of aggression and violent behavior and their manifestation in different age groups; mass violence/terrorism; resilience after traumatic victimization; neurocognitive, biological, and psychophysiological perspectives on violence; violence in ethnic minorities; cross-cultural perspectives on violence and aggression; online violence; economic violence; suicide and self-harm; prevention and rehabilitation programs.
Deadlines
The call for papers follows a two-step procedure with the following deadlines:
- –September 16, 2018: deadline for extended abstract submissions.
- –November 16, 2018: notification of decision on abstract submissions.
- –March 16, 2019: deadline submission of full manuscripts.
All manuscripts will undergo regular peer-review, with a target publication date in September/October 2019.
Manuscript Preparation and Submission
Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the journal’s author guidelines available on the journal’s website at
Extended Abstracts
Extended abstracts should be sent by email to
They should consist of approximately 300 words (maximum 500 words) and should address the following:
- •What is the main topic of interest and why it is important/timely?
- •What type of contribution will it represent (e.g., theoretical/conceptual, systematic review, meta-analysis, etc.)?
- •What are the key messages that the article will convey?
- •Does the paper include an emphasis on prevention or rehabilitation programs (for those articles that are not exclusively focused on them)?
Full Submissions
Full submissions should be submitted exclusively via the online submission system:
https://www.editorialmanager.com/ep
Manuscripts should have a maximum of 6,000 words (including references, tables, and references). If the author(s) feel that they need more space, they should communicate this upon submission of the extended abstract, indicating what would ideally be the desired length for their article. The manuscript should follow the standard formatting of papers published in the European Psychologist, and include a conclusion/summary section that spells out the key take-home messages of the article. For articles that do not focus exclusively on prevention and rehabilitation programs for violence, a (sub-)section addressing these issues would be encouraged and appreciated. Likewise, while not all contributions should be necessarily authored by European-based scholars, each manuscript should ideally have some kind of European perspective, or highlight its relevance for the European context.
European Psychologist is the official journal of EFPA (European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations), with over 200,000 members, and article summaries go out to members in regular newsletters. The journal has now an impact factor of 3.419 (2016) and showcases cutting edge developments in psychology from across Europe. European Psychologist now publishes solely review and integrative articles. Therefore, articles submitted to the special issue should take a broad, synthesizing view, which would illuminate the topic generally for our readers and give shape to the direction of further research.
Contact Details
Questions regarding the special issue should be directed to
Carlo Garofalo, c.
