Bullying Defined

Bullying is repeated acts over time that involves a real or perceived imbalance of power with the more powerful child or group attacking those who are less powerful. (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Fact Sheet #FS-200127) Bullying can be verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation. Bullying can be defined in many different ways. Although the UK currently has no legal definition of bullying,[2] some US states have laws against it. Bullying is usually done to coerce others by fear or threat.[3] Bullying can be prevented when children are taught social skills to successfully interact with people. This will help them to be productive adults when interacting with bothersome people.[4]

Bullying in school and the workplace is also referred to as peer abuse.

In colloquial speech, bullying often describes a form of harassment perpetrated by an abuser who possesses more physical and/or social power and dominance than the victim. The victim of bullying is sometimes referred to as a target. The harassment can be verbal, physical and/or emotional. Sometimes bullies will pick on people bigger or smaller than their size. Bullies hurt people verbally and physically. There are many reasons for that. One of them is because the bullies themselves are or have been the victim of bullying[5][6][7] (e.g. a bullying child who is abused at home, or bullying adults who are abused by their colleagues).

Many programs have been started to prevent bullying at schools with promotional speakers. Bullying consists of three types - verbal, physical and emotional.

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."[8] See also a reference to the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program at Clemson University: http://www.clemson.edu/olweus/.

Bullying can occur in any setting where human beings interact with each other. This includes school, church, 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 (see Jingoism).

In schools, bullying occurs in all areas. 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.

Some children bully because they have been isolated, and they have a deep need for belonging, but they do not possess the social skills to effectively keep friends (see social rejection).[11] "When you're miserable, you need something more miserable than yourself." This may explain the negative actions toward others that bullies exhibit.[citation needed] 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. They may thus not see a reason to prevent it if it brings them joy on some level.[20]

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.[21][22][23]

School shootings are a bullying-related phenomenon that receive an enormous amount of media attention. An investigation undertaken by the United States Secret Service found that in over 2/3 of cases, attackers in school shooting incidents "felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked, or injured by others prior to the incident" and discredits the idea that school shooters are "loners" who "just snap". Though observing that, "clearly, not every child who is bullied in school presents a risk for targeted violence in school", the investigation report states that, "a number of attackers had experienced bullying and harassment that was longstanding and severe. In those cases, the experience of bullying appeared to play a major role in motivating the attack at school". The report also observes "in a number of cases, attackers described experienced of being bullied in terms that approached torment". The report concluded that, "(t)hat bullying played a major role in a number of these school shootings should strongly support ongoing efforts to combat bullying in American schools".[24] See also [25]

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.[citation needed]

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.[26]