Bullying Bullying

Bullying

Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imbalance of physical or social power. This imbalance distinguishes bullying from conflict.^[1] Bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by hostile intent, imbalance of power and repetition over a period of time.^[2] Bullying is the activity of repeated, aggressive behavior intended to hurt another individual, physically, mentally or emotionally.
Bullying can be done individually or by a group, called mobbing, in which the bully may have one or more "lieutenants" who are willing to assist the primary bully. Bullying in school and the workplace is also referred to as "peer abuse".^[3] Robert W. Fuller has analyzed bullying in the context of rankism. The Swedish-Norwegian researcher Dan Olweus says bullying occurs when a person is "exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons",^[4] and that negative actions occur "when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, through words or in other ways".^[4] Individual bullying is usually characterized by a person behaving in a certain way to gain power over another person.^[5]
A bullying culture can develop in any context in which humans interact with each other. This may include school, family, the workplace,^[6] the home, and neighborhoods. The main platform for bullying in contemporary culture is on social media websites.^[7] In a 2012 study of male adolescent American football players, "the strongest predictor [of bullying] was the perception of whether the most influential male in a player's life would approve of the bullying behavior."^[8] A study by The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health in 2019 showed a relationship between social media use by girls and an increase in their exposure to bullying.^[9]
Bullying may be defined in many different ways. In the United Kingdom, there is no legal definition of bullying,^[10] while some states in the United States have laws against it.^[11] Bullying is divided into four basic types of abuse – psychological (sometimes called emotional or relational), verbal, physical, and cyber.^[12]
Behaviors used to assert such domination may include physical assault or coercion, verbal harassment, or threat, and such acts may be directed repeatedly toward particular targets. Rationalizations of such behavior sometimes include differences of social class, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, appearance, behavior, body language, personality, reputation, lineage, strength, size, or ability.^[13][14][15] If bullying is done by a group, it is called mobbing.
The word "bully" was first used in the 1530s meaning "sweetheart", applied to either sex, from the Dutch boel "lover, brother", probably diminutive of Middle High German buole "brother", of uncertain origin (compare with the German buhle "lover"). The meaning deteriorated through the 17th century through "fine fellow", "blusterer", to "harasser of the weak". This may have been as a connecting sense between "lover" and "ruffian" as in "protector of a prostitute", which was one sense of "bully" (though not specifically attested until 1706). The verb "to bully" is first attested in 1710.^[17]
In the past, in American culture, the term has been used differently, as an exclamation/exhortation, in particular famously associated with Theodore Roosevelt^[18] and continuing to the present in the bully pulpit, Roosevelt's coining and also as faint/deprecating praise ("bully for him").
Types
Bullying has been classified by the body of literature into different types. These can be in the form of nonverbal, verbal, or physical behavior. Another classification is based on perpetrators or the participants involved, so that the types include individual and collective bullying. Other interpretation also cite emotional and relational bullying in addition to physical harm inflicted towards another person or even property.^[19] There is also the case of the more recent phenomenon called cyberbullying.
Physical, verbal, and relational bullying are most prevalent in primary school and could also begin much earlier while continuing into later stages in individuals lives.
Individual
Individual bullying tactics are perpetrated by a single person against a victim or victims.^[20] Individual bullying can be classified into four types outlined below:^[21]
Physical
Physical bullying is any bullying that hurts someone's body or damages their possessions. Stealing, shoving, hitting, fighting, and intentionally destroying someone's property are types of physical bullying. Physical bullying is rarely the first form of bullying that a victim will experience. Often bullying will begin in a different form and later progress to physical violence. In physical bullying the main weapon the bully uses is his/her body, or some part thereof; or an object as a weapon when attacking his/her victim. Sometimes groups of young adults will target and alienate a peer because of some adolescent prejudice. This can quickly lead to a situation where they are being taunted, tortured, and "beaten up" by their classmates. Physical bullying will often escalate over time, and can lead to a detrimental or fatal ending, and therefore many try to stop it quickly to prevent any further escalation.^[22]
Verbal
Verbal bullying is one of the most common types of bullying. This is any bullying that is conducted by speaking, other use of the voice, or some form of body language and does not involve any physical contact. Bullying usually begins at this stage and includes any of the following:

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  Derogatory name-calling and nicknaming
  
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  Spreading rumors or lying about someone
  
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  Threatening someone
  
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  Yelling at or talking to someone in a rude or unkind tone of voice, especially without justifiable cause
  
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  Mocking someone's voice or style of speaking
  
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  Laughing at someone
  
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  Use of body language (i.e., the middle finger) to torture someone
  
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  Making insults or otherwise making fun of someone
  

In verbal bullying, the main weapon the bully uses is voice. In many cases, verbal bullying is common in both genders, but girls are more likely to perform it. Girls, in general, are more subtle with insults than boys. Girls use verbal bullying, as well as social exclusion techniques, to dominate and control other individuals and show their superiority and power, often to try to impress someone they idolize. Many boys are subtle enough to use verbal techniques for domination when they want to avoid the trouble that can come with physically bullying someone else.^[23]
Relational
Relational bullying (sometimes referred to as social aggression) is the type of bullying that uses relationships to hurt others.^[24] The term also denotes any bullying that is done with the intent to hurt somebody's reputation or social standing which can also link in with the techniques included in physical and verbal bullying. Relational bullying is a form of bullying common among youth, but particularly upon girls. Social exclusion (slighting or making someone feel "left out") is one of the most common types of relational bullying. Relational bullying can be used as a tool by bullies to both improve their social standing and control others. Unlike physical bullying which is obvious, relational bullying is not overt and can continue for a long time without being noticed.^[25]
Cyber
Cyberbullying is the use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person. When an adult is involved, it may meet the definition of cyber-harassment or cyberstalking, a crime that can have legal consequences and involve jail time.^[26] This includes bullying by use of email, instant messaging, social media websites (such as Facebook), text messages, and cell phones. It is stated that Cyberbullying is more common in secondary school than in primary school.^[21]
Collective
Collective bullying tactics are employed by more than one individual against a victim or victims. Collective bullying is known as mobbing, and can include any of the individual types of bullying. Trolling behavior on social media, although generally assumed to be individual in nature by the casual reader, is sometime organized efforts by sponsored astroturfers.
Mobbing