Article: Bully

It has been suggested that Workplace bullying be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

For other uses, see Bully (disambiguation).

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, physically or socially, than a weaker peer.

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

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

Bullying is broken into two categories:^[2]

1. direct bullying
2. 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 school or college/university, workplace, contact with neighbours, and between countries (see Jingoism). Whatever the situation, the power structure is typically evident between bully and victim. To those outside the conflict, it seems 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 threats.

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 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. ^[7]

It is often suggested that bullying behavior has its origin 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 or damaging personal property, school books or materials, clothes etc. that belong to the victim.
• Making fun of an individual through these things in any way.
• Spreading negative rumours and/or 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, often by 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 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 difference the bully has taken notice of.
• Social isolation of the victim. See also clique.
• Sexual harassment

Less common techniques:

• 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").

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. He 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 victims of bullying 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 now more likely 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

Main article: Workplace bullying

Workplace bullying, like childhood bullying, is the tendency of individuals or groups to use aggressive or unreasonable behavior to achieve their ends. When perpetrated by a group, it is often called mobbing. Unlike the more physical form of schoolyard bullying, workplace bullies often operate within the established rules and policies of their organization and their society. For instance, a workplace bully might use the office's "rumor mill" to circulate a lie about a co-worker. An employee who dislikes a co-worker for personal reasons may incessantly criticize everything that co-worker does. Such actions are not necessarily illegal and may not even be against the firm's regulations. However, the damage they cause, both to the targeted employee and to workplace morale, is obvious.

According to the Workplace Bullying and Trauma Institute, workplace bullying is "the repeated mistreatment of one employee targeted by one or more employees with a malicious mix of humiliation, intimidation and sabotage of performance." 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 also far more common than sexual harassment and verbal abuse.

Cyberspace

Cyberbullying occurs in electronic space[9]. According to Canadian educator Bill Belsey, the 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, online games 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 cyberbullying.org for more information.

Neighbourhood

Between neighbours, bullying normally takes the form of intimidating behaviour, such as excessive noise to disturb sleep and other normal living patterns, and reports to authorities, such as the police, for minor or made-up incidents. The purpose of this behaviour is to make the victim so uncomfortable that they move from their property.

Political

Bullying between countries occurs when one country imposes its will on another. This is normally done with military force or threats. With threats, it is common to ensure that aid and grants will not be given to the smaller country or that 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,”^[10]

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 behaviour 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.^[11]

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 army usually have older/more experienced candidates abusing - kicking or punching - less experienced soldiers.^[12].

Nicknames (Play on names)

Normally a nickname is given to someone by a friend due to a feature characteristic of the person. In some cases, this is a feature for which the victim does not want to be broadcasted, such as a mole or obscure shape of a body part. Teachers can catch on to this, but it is usually perceived as harmless, often because the jab is too subtle to recognize.

Hazing, initiation rites, and group pressure

Hazing occurs when a group imposes its will on a recruit as a requirement of group inclusion. It has been defined and illegalized by many universities, because fraternities traditionally hazed their recruits with activities that included humiliation through capture, forced nudity, forced daredevil stunts, namecalling, and other forms of group pressure. Gangs have also been known to require initiation rites, the most famous being fulfilling a dare to committ a crime witnessed by other group members (to prove that the new recruit is not a police officer or law-abiding informer). This is not normally called hazing although it is closely related. Group pressure and groupthink occur when a group imposes its collective will against non-conformist members. A sports coach may yell in the faces of athletes, or spell out rules about drug-use but then look the other way to encourage steroid use for short-term winnings, or pressure athletes to conform to a group standard such as not having a social life outside of the team, or not accepting disabled or under-performing athletes into a university-based club that is supposed to be open to all. A company may discourage employees from reporting truthful information, but use coercive and covert means to avoid being criminized for it. For example, employees who report correct numbers may be given signals to stop; or may simply be fired for some trivial complaint such as tardiness even though other employees are not disciplined equally.

Effects of bullying

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

Effects on the individual include:

• Reactive depression, a form of clinical depression or Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Anxiety
• Aches, pains and gastric problems
• Loss of self esteem
• Relationship problems
• Drug and alcohol abuse
• Self-harm or Suicide (also known as bullycide)
• Motivation to start or join a gang for protection, or becoming bullies themselves
• Moving to another place
• Poverty

Effects on a school include:

• High levels of truancy
• Disrespect for teachers
• Weapon-carrying by children for protection
• Increase in dropout rate
• 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 depression, anxiety and backache
• High level of staff turnover
• Loss of profit, and decreased productivity
• Negative media attention or Legal action
  • Against the organisation for personal injury
  • Against the organisation and individual bully under discrimination laws