Bullying

Bullying is a form of abuse. It involves repeated acts over time attempting to create or enforce one
person's (or group's) power over another person (or group), thus an "imbalance of power". The
"imbalance of power" may be social power and/or physical power. The victim of bullying is
sometimes referred to as a target. Bullying types of behavior are often rooted in a would-be bully's
inability to empathize with those whom he or she would target.
Bullying consists of three basic types of abuse emotional, verbal and physical. It typically involves
astute methods of coercion such as psychological manipulation. Bullying can be defined in many
different ways. Although the UK currently has no legal definition of bullying, some US states have
laws against it.
Bullying ranges from simple one on one bullying to more complex bullying in which the bully may
have one or more 'lieutenants' who may seem to be willing to assist the primary bully in his
bullying activities. Bullying in school and the workplace is also referred to as peer abuse.
Bullying can occur in any context in which human beings interact with each other. This includes
school, church, family, the workplace, home and neighborhoods. It is even a common push factor
in migration. Bullying can exist between social groups, social classes and even between countries.
In fact on an international scale, perceived or real imbalances of power between nations, in both
economic systems and in treaty systems, are often cited as some of the primary causes of both
World War I and World War II. Put simply, historically and from this perspective, certain
international 'bullying' between nations is seen as having resulted in at least two very major and
costly international wars.
Definition
Some schools with bullying problems have addressed the issue by adding CCTV cameras.
Bullying is an act of repeated aggressive behavior in order to intentionally hurt another person,
physically or mentally. Bullying is characterized by an individual behaving in a certain way to gain
power over another person.
Norwegian researcher Dan Olweus defines bullying as when a person is "exposed, repeatedly and
over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons." He defines negative
action as "when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through
physical contact, through words or in other ways".
General
Bullying behavior may include name calling, verbal or written abuse, exclusion from activities,
exclusion from social situations, physical abuse, or coercion. Bullies may behave this way to be

perceived as popular or tough or to get attention. They may bully out of jealousy or be acting out
because they themselves are bullied.
USA National Center for Education Statistics suggests that bullying can be classified into two
categories: Direct bullying, and indirect bullying which is also known as social aggression.
Ross states that direct bullying involves a great deal of physical aggression such as shoving and
poking, throwing things, slapping, choking, punching and kicking, beating, stabbing, pulling hair,
scratching, biting, scraping and pinching.
He also suggests that social aggression or indirect bullying is characterized by threatening the
victim into social isolation. This isolation is achieved through a wide variety of techniques,
including spreading gossip, refusing to socialize with the victim, bullying other people who wish to
socialize with the victim, and criticizing the victim's manner of dress and other socially-significant
markers (including the victim's race, religion or disability). Ross outlines other forms of indirect
bullying which are more subtle and more likely to be verbal, such as name calling, the silent
treatment, arguing others into submission, manipulation, gossip/false gossip, lies, rumors/false
rumors, staring, giggling, laughing at the victim, saying certain words that trigger a reaction from a
past event, and mocking. The children's charity Act Against Bullying was set up in 2003 to help
children who were victims of this type of bullying by researching and publishing coping skills.
Effects of bullying on those who are targeted
The effects of bullying can be serious and even fatal. Mona OMoore of the Anti-Bullying Centre at
Trinity College in Dublin, has written, "There is a growing body of research which indicates that
individuals, whether child or adult, who are persistently subjected to abusive behavior are at risk
of stress related illness which can sometimes lead to suicide." Those who have been the targets of
bullying can suffer from long term emotional and behavioral problems. Bullying can cause
loneliness, depression, anxiety, lead to low self-esteem and increased susceptibility to illness.
Suicide
There is a strong link between bullying and suicide. Bullying leads to several suicides every year. It
is estimated that between 15 and 25 children commit suicide every year in the UK alone, because
they are being bullied.
Characteristics of bullies and bully accomplices
Research indicates that adults who bully have personalities that are authoritarian, combined with
a strong need to control or dominate. It has also been suggested that a disadvantageous view of
subordinates can be particular a risk factor.
Further studies have shown that envy and resentment may be motives for bullying. Research on
the self-esteem of bullies has produced equivocal results. While some bullies are arrogant and

narcissistic, others can use bullying as a tool to conceal shame or anxiety or to boost self-esteem:
by demeaning others, the abuser him/herself feels empowered.
Researchers have identified other risk factors such as depression and personality disorders, as well
as quickness to anger and use of force, addiction to aggressive behaviors, mistaking others' actions
as hostile, concern with preserving self-image, and engaging in obsessive or rigid actions. A
combination of these factors may also be cause of this behavior.
It is often suggested that bullying behavior has its origin in childhood. As a person who is inclined
to act as a bully matures, his or her related behavior patterns will often also mature. Schoolyard
pranks and 'rough-housing' may mature into more fine, yet equally effective adult level activities
such as administrative end-runs, and well planned attempts at character assassination, or other
less obvious, yet equally forceful forms of coercion.
"If aggressive behavior is not challenged in childhood, there is a danger that it may become
habitual. Indeed, there is research evidence, to indicate that bullying during childhood puts
children at risk of criminal behavior and domestic violence in adulthood."
Bullies may bully because they themselves have been the victim of bullying. There is also evidence
that bullies have a much higher likelihood to be put in jail in the future.
Characteristics of typical bystanders
Often bullying takes place in the presence of a large group of relatively uninvolved bystanders. In
many cases, it is the bully's ability to create the illusion that he or she has the support of the
majority present that instills the fear of 'speaking out' in protestation of the bullying activities
being observed by the group. Unless the 'bully mentality' is effectively challenged in any given
group in its earlier stages, often the 'bully mentality' becomes an accepted norm within the group.
In such groups where the 'bully mentality' has been allowed to become a dominant factor in the
group environment, a steady stream of injustices and abuses often becomes a regular and
predictable group experience. Such a toxic environment often remains as the status-quo of the
group for an extended period of time, until somehow the bullying-cycle should eventually come to
an end. Bystanders to bullying activities are often unable to recognize the true cost that silence
regarding the bullying activities has to both the individual and to the group. A certain inability to
fully empathize is also usually present in the typical bystander, but to a lesser degree than in the
bully. The reversal of a 'bully mentality' within a group is usually an effort which requires much
time, energy, careful planning, coordination with others, and usually the undertaking of a certain
'risk'.
Types of bullying
School bullying
In schools, bullying occurs in all areas of school. It can occur in nearly any part in or around the
school building, though it more often occurs in PE, recess, hallways, bathrooms, on school buses

and waiting for buses, classes that require group work and/or after school activities. Bullying in
school sometimes consists of a group of students taking advantage of or isolating one student in
particular and gaining the loyalty of bystanders who want to avoid becoming the next victim.
These bullies taunt and tease their target before physically bullying the target. Targets of bullying
in school are often pupils who are considered strange or different by their peers to begin with,
making the situation harder for them to deal with.
One student or a group can bully another student or a group of students. Bystanders may
participate or watch, sometimes out of fear of becoming the next victim. However, there is some
research suggesting that a significant proportion of "normal" school children may not evaluate
school-based violence (student-on-student victimization) as negatively or as being unacceptable as
much as adults generally do, and may even derive enjoyment from it, and they may thus not see a
reason to prevent it if it brings them joy on some level.
Bullying can also be perpetrated by teachers and the school system itself: There is an inherent
power differential in the system that can easily predispose to subtle or covert abuse (relational
aggression or passive aggression), humiliation, or exclusion even while maintaining overt
commitments to anti-bullying policies.
Anti-bullying programs are designed to teach students cooperation, as well as training peer
moderators in intervention and dispute resolution techniques, as a form of peer support.
American victims and their families have legal recourse, such as suing a school or teacher for
failure to adequately supervise, racial or gender discrimination, or other civil rights violations.
Special education students who are victimized may sue a school or school board under the ADA or
Section 504. In addition, the victims of some school shootings have sued both the shooters'
families and the schools.
Hazing
Hazing is an often ritualistic test which may constitute harassment, abuse, or humiliation with
requirements to perform meaningless tasks; sometimes as a way of initiation into a social group.
The term can refer to either physical (sometimes violent) or mental (possibly degrading) practices.
It is a subjective matter where to draw to line between 'normal' hazing (somewhat abusive) and a
mere rite of passage (essentially bonding; proponents may argue they can coincide), and there is a
gray area where exactly the other side passes over into sheer degrading, even harmful abuse that
should not even be tolerated if accepted voluntarily (serious but avoidable accidents do still
happen; even deliberate abuse with similar grave medical consequences occurs, in some traditions
even rather often). Furthermore, as it must be a ritual initiation, a different social context may
mean a same treatment is technically hazing for some, not for others, e.g. a line-crossing
ceremony when passing the equator at sea is hazing for the sailor while the extended (generally
voluntary, more playful) application to passengers is not.
Hazing has been reported in a variety of social contexts, including:

Sports teams
Academic fraternities and sororities these practices are not limited to American schools.
Associated groups, like fan clubs, school bands
Secret societies and even certain service clubs, or rather their local sections (such as some
modern US Freemasons; not traditional masonic lodges)
Similarly various other competitive sports teams or clubs, even 'soft' and non-competitive
ones (such as arts)
The armed forces e.g., in the U.S., hard hazing practices from World War I boot camps
were introduced into colleges.
Police forces (often with a paramilitary tradition)
Rescue services, such as lifeguards (also drilled for operations in military style)
In workplaces

Hazing is considered a felony in several US states, and anti-hazing legislation has been proposed in
other states.
Workplace bullying
According to the Workplace Bullying and Trauma Institute workplace bullying is "repeated, healthharming mistreatment, verbal abuse, or conduct which is threatening, humiliating, intimidating, or
sabotage that interferes with work or some combination of the three." Statistics show that
bullying is 3 times as prevalent as illegal discrimination and at least 1,600 times as prevalent as
workplace violence. Statistics also show that while only one employee in every 10,000 becomes a
victim of workplace violence, one in six experiences bullying at work. Bullying is a little more
common than sexual harassment but not verbal abuse which occurs more than bullying.
Unlike the more physical form of school bullying, workplace bullying often takes place within the
established rules and policies of the organization and society. Such actions are not necessarily
illegal and may not even be against the firm's regulations; however, the damage to the targeted
employee and to workplace morale is obvious.
Particularly when perpetrated by a group, workplace bullying is sometimes known as mobbing. It
can also be known as "career assassination" in political circles.
Cyberbullying
According to Canadian educator Bill Belsey, it:
...involves the use of information and communication technologies such as e-mail, cell phone and
pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory personal Web sites, blogs, online games and
defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile
behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others.
Bullies will even create blogs to intimidate victims worldwide.

Protection racket bullying

One revenue generating scheme often employed by underworld figures is sometimes referred to
as the "protection racket" scheme. In this scheme, local businesses are forced to regularly pay a
local underworld figure a certain portion of their profits. The alternative to paying such a
'protection-fee' to the local underworld figure is usually the threat of some form of costly
vandalism, theft or even the bodily injury of the non-submitting business operator or his family.
Intra-military bullying
In 2000, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) defined bullying as: ...the use of physical strength or
the abuse of authority to intimidate or victimize others, or to give unlawful punishments. A
review of a number of deaths by suicide at Princess Royal Barracks, Deepcut by Nicholas Blake QC
indicated that whilst a culture of bullying existed during the mid to late 1990s many of the issues
were being addressed as a result of the Defense Training Review.
Some argue that this behavior should be allowed because of a general academic consensus that
"soldiering" is different from other occupations. Soldiers expected to risk their lives should,
according to them, develop strength of body and spirit to accept bullying.
In some countries, ritual hazing among recruits has been tolerated and even lauded as a rite of
passage that builds character and toughness; while in others, systematic bullying of lower-ranking,
young or physically slight recruits may in fact be encouraged by military policy, either tacitly or
overtly. Also, the Russian army usually has older/more experienced candidates abusing kicking or
punching less experienced soldiers.
Political bullying and terrorism
Jingoism is defined as, 'The extreme belief that your own country is always best, which is often
shown in enthusiastic support for a war against another country.' This form of ultra-nationalistic
rhetoric is sometimes a precursor to warfare. It is often a part of a campaign by one country to
impose its will upon another country by various means of extraordinary coercion, with threats of
force, or ultimately by force itself if all other means may be seen as unsuccessful.
The forceful methods used by various totalitarian regimes to secure and maintain their power
have sometimes been described as merely highly organized and widespread forms of bullying.
International terrorism has been described by some as a form of political bullying, and by others as
a response to the international bullying attempts of existing nation-states.
Bullied celebrities