This Research Topic is the second volume of the series New Perspectives on Gender based Violence: from Research to Intervention.

The first volume is available here: Volume I

The European Institute for Gender Equality and the WHO underlined that the Gender based violence (GBV) and the Violence Against Women (VAW) involves principally women but also men, families and the societies in which they live. The GBV and the VAW reinforce the gender inequalities which are steeped in the cultural aspects and gender roles that either support and justify it. The United Nation defines VAW as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life." Many organizations, practitioners, and researchers have emphasized how GBV and VAW have increased exponentially since the outbreak of the Covid 19 Pandemic and how access to protection and advocacy services has become increasingly difficult.

In 2015 the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights affirmed that violence against women can be considered as a violation of human rights and dignity. In the European Union 1 in 3 women experience physical and/or sexual violence, 1 in 2 sexual harassment, 1 in 20 has been raped, and 1 in 5 has experienced stalking. 95% of victims trafficked for sexual exploitation in EU are women. GBV and VAW can manifest itself under different manifestation, from the most common forms (i.e. Intimate Partner Violence), to the newer forms mediated, for example, by the use of new technology (i.e. the use of devices and online mode). However, DV remains largely under-reported due to fear of reprisal by the perpetrator, hope that DV will stop, shame, loss of social prestige due to negative media coverage: 90% of cases of DV continue to be identified as a non-denounced violence. Violence towards men should also not be neglected, as it increases in number every year. Its dynamics may differ, and most of it is generated by other men.

The aim of this Research Topic is to gather updated scientific and multidisciplinary contributions about issues linked to gender based violence, violence against women, including intimate partner violence, same sex intimate partner violence, female genital mutilation, online violence and the impact of the social environment in which this is taking place, such as pandemics and armed political conflict, as well as structural factors such as inequality and poverty. We encourage contributions from a variety of areas including original qualitative and quantitative articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, theories and clinical case studies on biological, psycho-social and cultural correlates, risk and protective factors, and the associated factors related to the etiology, assessment, and treatment of both victims/survivors and perpetrators.

We would like to acknowledge that Tommaso Trombetta has acted as coordinator and has contributed to the preparation of the proposal for this Research Topic.

Impact

Frontiers in Psychology

Gender, Sex and Sexualities

Participating Journals

Frontiers in Sociology

Gender, Sex and Sexualities