Violence and Victims Journal: "Violence and Victims" by Springer Publishing Company

Violence and Victims is a social work journal that informs "clinical decisions, legal actions and public policy" (Springer Publishing, 2011). It is a peer-reviewed journal that includes subject matter on "theory, research, policy, and clinical practice in the area of interpersonal violence and victimization" across a myriad of professional disciplines to the likes of medicine, law, sociology, psychology and social work (Springer Publishing, 2011). Some important topics, issues and questions that are discussed include subjects like how to assess a violent offender, how to counsel victims of violence, among other topics.

The editors of this journal include a myriad of different doctors from all over the United States. The editor-in-chief is from the University of Washington of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, while others that are associate editors and on the editorial and advisory board are various individuals with university and college affiliations in various subjects like psychiatry, psychology, medicine, criminal justice, among others. The journal that these editors are a part of is available both print and online, in order to educate as many professionals in the field about the subjects discussed.

If the readers of the journal or others who feel compelled to submit an article to the journal, then there are resources available on the journal's website that outline instructions for them including editorial contacts, permission requests, and guidelines. Publication criteria that is outlined on the website includes that there should be prepared in accordance with the American Psychological Association, that there should be abstract, the manuscript should be about 20-25 pages in length, along with other stipulations; though ultimately, the article should be submitted to the editorial contacts (Springer Publishing, 2011). The articles are targeted at other professionals in the field of psychology including those in law, medicine, sociology, social work, among other professions. This is a reasonable conclusion since the material discussed, as well as the manner and tone that the subject is discussed in, is at a higher level than average; thus, it seems the targeted readership of such a journal would be other professionals in the field that strive to learn more about various issues that face other professionals in their field and also, inquire more knowledge into their arsenal.

After exploring the journal in depth over a period of time, the work that is published in the magazine is that of physicians who deal with the issues under the broader topic of violence and victimization. Some titles of articles include, "Toward a Development Taxonomy of Adult Sexual Aggressors of Women: Antisocial Trajectories in Youth, Mating Effort, and Sexual Criminal Activity in Adulthood" and "Routine Inequality: Violent Victimization at the Intersection of Race and Ethnicity Among Females" (Springer Publishing, 2011). The ranges of voice that write the articles in the journal are from different professionals who are in the field and deal with issues on a daily basis. This is an advantage to this journal, as the range of voices from a range of professionals has the ability to come together and help develop a more comprehensive knowledge base when it comes to treating and dealing with violence and the victims. The articles are very specific in nature, for instance, "Intimate Partner Violence and PTSD: The Moderating Role of Emotion-Focused Coping," but in these specifics there is the ability to decipher more generalizations and have the ability to apply these specifics in other forums within the field as a whole (Lilly & Graham-Bermann, 2010). This article discusses the relationship between intimate partner violence towards women and ultimately, the post traumatic stress disorder that results- the authors of this article provide insight into the idea that emotion-based coping is the best way for these victims of violence to deal with their plight and would help them in the long run. The themes of violence and victims, as the title of the journal suggests is certainly a reoccurring theme that all of the authors touch on in their article. By exploring the issues that are the journal issues over time, it can be concluded that the range of voices cover a myriad of different topics in the field of violence and victimization.

Because of the peer-reviewed article nature of the journal, the writers are positioned and represented in the articles as such- scholars about their given article subject matter and for that reason, the articles are...

The authors are mostly pro-author-evacuated because of the scholarly nature of the journal articles.
The readers are addressed and invoked in the article by the topic of the article generally- the readers know that the author is addressing them as the subject matter is not something general but rather educational and scholarly, which is automatically intended for peers and colleagues in their field. The readers are reading for interest and desire to learn more about a particular facet within their field, whether it be medicine, sociology, social work, etc. The values and beliefs that they foster is likely respect for the person writing the article, as there is a certain degree of mutual respect that goes with the journal overall. Expectations and assumptions that may be made on behalf of the reader are ones that are based in the reader's own experiences and practice, they may be reading the article to learn something new or help them deal with an issue in their own practice or may even be reading the article to see if it reinforces the ideas and beliefs that they already harbor.

The visual aspects of the journal overall is that it seems very modern and new, which may be indicative of the publishers wanting to represent that the material in the journal is new and fresh in nature- it's progressive and strives to provide a more modern take on medicine and perceptions of certain topics. The journal articles themselves have limited graphics, but sometimes do contain graphs if the article is studying changes or trends over time.

The tone of the article, for all the previously mentioned reasons, is very scholarly and professional. These are peer-reviewed articles so the tone is clearly geared towards those that are educated in the field of the subject matter- fellow doctors with advanced education. Since these authors choose to write about the subject matter that they do, they are quite passionate and try to explain what they are researching or observing so that others can discuss it with them. The relationship that the articles seem to have is quite formal yet still fosters a passionate tone so, a tone that almost begs for criticism and further discussion so that every facet of the topic can be flushed out and discussed.

When starting the articles are generally simple as the author is explaining what is going to be discussing in the article while and then as it goes on, the language and subject matter gets increasingly complex. Depending on the nature of what is being discussed in the article, the article is sometimes either practical or theoretical; sometimes there is a combination of both. Practicality may be employed at the beginning of the article to create a foundation and then sometimes a theoretical framework is built upon it. The arguments that these scholars are making have to be tight and linear because of the nature of their article- they are trying to inform others in the scholarly community and with that, comes the necessary nature of trying to "fill in the gaps" so to speak- where there are no questions that have not been addressed. By creating a tight and linear argument, it allows for creditability for the author(s) and therefore, readers will take the article more seriously and the information in it as closer to fact.

When the author of the journal article is using other people's work as a source, as noticed in several articles, the author may simply state another person's name and explain their work and might also use their work as source, by citing it using the American Psychological Associations citation guidelines. There are no long block quotes in the articles in issues over time that were reviewed, as it may lead to readers believing that the conclusions and information are not actually there own but taken from other researchers in the field.

Unlike magazines or other periodicals that are commonplace in libraries and homes across the country, this journal did not contain any advertisements or graphic color pictures- it was journal article after journal article, with each split in separate sections/chapters. Over time, there were no noticeable shifts in the overall aesthetic or content of the journal- the journal seemed to pride itself on attracting scholarly individuals from the field and having them submit articles to the magazine.

By examining the different facets of the journal over time, including the way that it is written, who the material is geared towards, what is and is not contained in the articles,…