Abstract

Bullying behavior can occur in several forms and situations, and the definition of bullying includes the following three components. First, bullying involves intentional and aggressive behavior designed to intimidate, harass, exclude, destroy property, or physically injure others. The verbal behavior can take the form of threats, name-calling, teasing, demands for money or services, spreading of rumors, and/or obscene gestures. Some of these behaviors result in indirect bullying, such as spreading rumors; others are direct behaviors, such as name-calling.  Physical behaviors designed to bully are direct and can include tripping, shoving, pushing, or hitting. However, bullying is more likely to take the form of verbal intimidation than physical attacks. Second, for behavior to reach the level of bullying it must occur repeatedly (albeit not necessarily in the same form) and over time. Third, the victim must perceive the bully as more powerful than himself or herself in terms of physical strength, popularity, or competence. In this paper we are going research about bullying. The paper discussed about the bullying at schools.

Bullying

Introduction

Among children and adolescents, bullying is most likely to occur in school than in any other place, particularly in areas that are not well supervised. Bullying also occurs on the way to and from school, at athletic events, and on field trips, as well as online, as cyberspace increasingly offers opportunities to text message and post communications that can be designated as bullying. It is also most likely to occur among males, with most victims the same gender as the bullies (Davidson, 383).

Males are more likely to be involved in physically aggressive bullying than are females. So-called relational aggression is presumed to be more common among girls. This type of bullying is designed to destroy the friendships, popularity, and reputations of the victims. The victims also tend to be girls. Verbal bullying can include insulting or invective remarks about race or ethnicity. However, there are no consistent research results as to the extent of this type of bullying or its prevalence between or among racial or ethnic groups.

Discussion

Bullying is one of the most pervasive forms of juvenile misbehavior often constituting delinquency and sometimes crime. Although acts intended to ridicule and intimidate others have historically been largely ignored and considered a fairly normative aspect of child and adolescent social development, bullying has emerged during the last 20 years as a serious social problem. Bullying is now widely considered in social science and education contexts as far more than a peccadillo but rather as an emergent form of delinquency and a gateway to other antisocial and criminal behavior (Dehue, 406).

Acts of bullying may be executed so as to render physical and/or psychological harm with extreme incidents such as the highly publicized 2006 suicide of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old Missouri girl who was bullied via the Web site MySpace. Bullying is often stereotyped as a group event with a single victim. In reality, bullying is far from monolithic and assumes multiple forms that range from in-person encounters, gossip and slander, and telephonic harassment to cyber bullying. These acts may involve a single or multiple perpetrators and victims.

Victims of bullying experience a range of injuries and harm, which include physical abuse, social ostracism, and ...