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A bully is an individual who torments others through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion.

The behavior engaged in by bullies: bullying

In colloquial speech, bullying is most often used to describe a form of harassment perpetrated by someone who is in some way more powerful than a weaker peer.

Researchers accept generally that bullying contains three essential elements:^[1]

the behavior is aggressive and negative;
the behavior is carried out repeatedly;
the behavior occurs in a relationship where there is an imbalance of power between the parties involved

Bullying is broken into two categories:^[2]

direct bullying
indirect bullying, also known as social aggression

Direct bullying is the form most common to male bullies.

Social aggression or indirect bullying is most common to female bullies and young children, and is characterized by forcing 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
criticizing the victim's manner of dress and other socially-significant markers (including the victim's race, religion, disability, etc).

Bullying can occur in situations including in school or college/university, the workplace, by neighbours, and between countries (See Jingoism). Whatever the situation, the power structure is typically evident between the bully and victim. It seems to those outside the relationship that the bully's power depends only upon the perception of the victim, with the victim being too intimidated to put up effective resistance. However the victim usually has just cause to be afraid of the bully due to the threat and actually carrying out of physical/sexual violence, or loss of livelihood.

Characteristics of bullies

Research ^[3] indicates that adults who bully have personalities that are authoritarian, combined with a strong need to control or dominate. It has also been suggested ^[4] that a deficit in social skills and a prejudical view of subordinates can be particular risk factors.

Further studies ^[5] have shown that while envy and resentment may be motives for bullying, contrary to popular belief, there is little evidence to suggest bullies suffer from any deficit in self esteem.^[6]

Other researchers have identified a quickness to anger and the use of force, addiction to aggressive behaviors, mistaking others' actions as hostile, a concern with preserving their self image, and engaging in obsessive or rigid actions. ^[7]

It is often suggested that bullying behaviors have their origins in childhood:

"If aggressive behaviour 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 behaviour and domestic violence in adulthood."^[8]

Bullying does not necessarily involve criminality or violence. For example, bullying often operates through psychological or verbal abuse.

Types of bullying

Bullies mainly use a combination of intimidation and humiliation to torment others. The following are some examples of bullying techniques:

Calling the victim names; accusing the victim of uselessness in all of his or her pursuits.
Repeated physical assault on a person, be it to his or her body or property.
Interfering with the personal property of a person, school books or materials, clothes, etc damaging same, or making fun of an individual through them in any way.
Spreading negative rumours and gossip about the victim. In business, this may include false documentation.
Demoting the victim without just cause.
Making the victim do what he or she does not want to do, using threats to ensure that the victim follows orders.
Getting a victim into trouble with someone (usually an authority figure), or incurring disciplinary action against the victim, for an indiscretion either not committed by the victim or for one that is exaggerated by the bully.
Making derogatory remarks about a person's family (particularly the mother), about one's home, personal appearance, sexual orientation, religion, race, income level, nationality, or any other perceived inferiority the bully has taken notice of.
Social isolation of the victim. See also clique.

Cyberbullying through the use of various information technologies.
Blackmailing
Domination staring.
Derogatory graffiti.
Using blatant sarcasm to appear as friendly (to an outsider) while asserting control and status over the victim. (This often occurs directly after the bully has deemed the person as a "worthy victim")

Locations of bullying

Bullying can occur in any context in which human beings interact such as in schools, universities, families, between neighbours, and in workplaces.

Schools

In schools, bullying usually occurs in areas with minimal or no adult supervision. They can occur in nearly any part in or around the school building.

An extreme case of school-yard bullying is that of an eighth grader named Curtis Taylor at a middle school in Iowa who had been the victim of continuous bullying for three years, which included name-calling, being bashed into a locker, having chocolate milk poured down his sweatshirt and vandalism of his belongings. This drove him to suicide on March 21, 1993. Some bully experts have termed this extreme reaction "bullycide".

In the 1990s, the United States saw an epidemic of school shootings (of which the most notorious was the Columbine High School massacre). Many of the children behind these shootings claimed that they were the victims of bullies and that they resorted to violence only after the school administration repeatedly failed to intervene. In many of these cases, the victims of the shooters sued both the shooters' families and the schools.

As a result of these trends, schools in many countries strongly discourage bullying, with programs designed to teach students cooperation, as well as training peer moderators in intervention and dispute resolution techniques, as a form of peer support.

Since media coverage has exposed just how widespread bullying is, juries are more likely now to sympathize with victims. In recent years, many victims have been suing bullies directly for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and including their school as a defendant under the principle of joint and several liability. American victims and their families have other legal recourse, such as suing a school or teacher for failure to adequately supervise, civil rights violations, racial or gender discrimination or harassment, or other civil rights violations. Special education students who are victimized may sue a school or school board under the ADA or Section 504.

Workplace

Workplace bullying (sometimes referred to as "Adult Bullying") is described by the UK Trades Union Congress (^[9]TUC, 1998) as:

"a serious workplace issue which too often people think is just an occasional problem between individuals. But bullying is more than an occasional bout of anger or the odd tiff. It is regular and persistent intimidation which undermines the integrity and confidence of the bully's victim. And it is often accepted or even encouraged as part of the culture of the organization".

Cyberspace

Cyberbullying occurs in electronic space[10]. According to Canadian educator Bill Belsey, the original creator of the term, 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, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others." See www.cyberbullying.org for more information.

Neighborhood

Between neighbours, bullying normally takes the form of intimidation by nuisance behaviour, such as excessive noise to disturb sleep and normal living patterns, and reports to authorities such as the police for minor or made up incidents. The purpose of this form of behaviour is to make the victim so uncomfortable they move from their property. Not all nuisance behaviour is bullying: insensitivity can be an explanation.

Political

Bullying between countries occurs when one country decides to impose its will on another. This is normally done with military force, the threat that aid and grants will not be given to the smaller country or the smaller country will not be allowed to join a trading organisation.

Military

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,”^[11]

Yet it is claimed that military bullying is still shielded from open investigation. Deepcut Barracks, in the UK, is one example of the government refusing to conduct a full public enquiry to possible military bullying.

Some argue that this behavior should be allowed because of a general academic consensus that "soldiering" is different from other occupations. Soldiers are expected to be ready to risk their lives, and it is believed by some that their training should develop strength of body and spirit to accept this.^[12]

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 (see dedovschina). Also, the Russian armies usually have older/more experienced candidates abusing - kicking or punching - younger/less experienced soldiers.^[13].

Nicknames (Play on names)

Normally a nickname is given to someone by a friend due to a unique feature on them. In some cases, this is for a feature the victim doesn't want to be broadcasted, such as a mole or obscure shape of a part of the body. In extreme cases teachers can catch on to this, but it is usually perceived as harmless or the jab is too subtle to recognize. People debate if it is worse if the victim knows about the name or doesn't. However, a nickname can sometimes become such an embarrassment that the victim will have to move (either school, house or both).

Effects of bullying

Persistent bullying may have a number of effects on an individual, and in the environment where bullying takes place.

Effects on the individual include:

Reactive Depression, a form of clinical depression caused by exogenous events
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Becoming bullies themselves
Anxiety
Gastric problems
Unspecified aches and pains
Loss of self esteem
Fear of expressing emotions
Relationship problems
Drug and alcohol abuse
Self-Injury/Self-harm
Suicide (also known as bullycide)

Effects on a school include:

High levels of truancy
High staff turnover
Disrespect for teachers
High level of absence for minor ailments
Weapon-carrying by children for protection
Legal action
- Against the school or education authority
- Against the bully's family

Effects on the organisation such as a workplace:

Loss of morale
High level of sick leave absence for clinical depression|depression, anxiety and backache
Decreased productivity and profit
High level of staff turnover
Loss of customers
Bad reputation in industry
Negative media attention
Legal action
- Against the organisation for personal injury
- Against the organisation and individual bully under discrimination laws

References

^ The Harassed Worker, Brodsky, C. (1976), D.C.Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts.
^ Student Reports of Bullying, Results From the 2001 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, US National Center for Education Statistics
^ Beat Bullying at Work: a Guide for Trade Union Representatives and Personnel Managers. Trades Union Congress (TUC) (1998), London, UK.
^ Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace. International perspectives in research and practice, Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., Zapf, D., & Cooper, C. L. (Eds.)(2003), Taylor & Francis, London.
^ Petty tyranny in organizations , Ashforth, Blake, Human Relations, Vol. 47, No. 7, 755-778 (1994)
^ Areas of Expert Agreement on Identification of School Bullies and Victims, Hazler, R. J., Carney, J. V., Green, S., Powell, R., & Jolly, L. S. (1997). School Psychology International, 18, 3-12.
^ Anti-Bullying Center Trinity College, Dublin,
^ Bullies and their victims: Understanding a pervasive problem in the schools, Batsche, G. M., & Knoff, H. M. (1994) School PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW, 23 (2), 165-174. EJ 490 574.
^ Military bullying a global problem, BBC, UK Monday, 28 November 2005
^ The Values and Standards of the British Army – A Guide to Soldiers, Ministry of Defence, UK March 2000, paragraph 23.
^ Social Psychology of the Individual Soldier, Jean M. Callaghan and Franz Kernic 2003 Armed Forces and International Security: Global Trends and Issues, Lit Verlag, Munster

Books on Bullying

Non-Fiction

The Fight That Never Ends by Tim Brown
Bullycide, Death at Playtime by Neil Marr and Tim Field
A Journey Out of Bullying: From Despair to Hope by Patricia L. Scott
"Peer Abuse Know More! Bullying From A Psychological Perspective" By Elizabeth Bennett
New Perspectives on Bullying by Ken Rigby
Queen Bees And Wannabees : Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, And Other Realities Of Adolescence by Rosalind Wiseman
Odd Girl Out : The Hidden Culture Of Aggression In Girls by Rachel Simmons

Fiction

Carrie by Stephen King
The Ruling Class by Francine Pascale

External links

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 Since media coverage has exposed just how widespread bullying is, juries are more likely now to sympathize with victims.  In recent years, many victims have been suing bullies directly for [[intentional infliction of emotional distress]], and including their school as a [[defendant]] under the principle of joint and several liability.  American victims and their families have other legal recourse, such as suing a school or teacher for failure to adequately supervise, [[civil rights]] violations, racial or gender [[discrimination]] or harassment, or other civil rights violations.  Special education students who are victimized may sue a school or school board under the [[ADA]] or [[Section 504]].
-Bullying in schools (or other institutions of higher education) may also take the form of reduced grading, non-return of assignments, segregation of competent students by incompetent/non-performing teachers, for example, to protect the reputation of a college. This is so that their programmes and internal code of conduct are never questioned, and that parents (usually the ones paying the fees), are made to believe that their children are unable to cope with the course. Typically, these attitudes serve to create the unwritten policy of 'if you're stupid, you don't deserve feedback. if you're good, you don't need it.' Frequently, such institutions (usually in Asian countries) run a franchise programme with foreign (usually Western) institutions with the clause that foreign partners have no say in local grading or codes of conduct of staff involved on the local end. It serves to create a class of 'educated fools', people with degrees who have not learned to adapt to situations and create solutions by asking the right questions and solving problems.
 ===Workplace===