What Makes A Bully

Bullying has long been tolerated as a rite of passage among children and adolescents. There is an implication that individuals who are bullied must have "asked for" this type of treatment, or deserved it. Sometimes, even the child who is bullied begins to internalize this idea. For many years, there has been a general acceptance and collective shrug when it comes to a child or adolescent with greater social capital or power pushing around a child perceived as subordinate. But bullying is not developmentally appropriate; it should not be considered a normal part of the typical social grouping that occurs throughout a child's life. Although bullying behavior endures through generations, the milieu is changing. Historically, bulling has occurred at school, the physical setting in which most of childhood is centered and the primary source for peer group formation. In recent years, however, the physical setting is not the only place bullying is occurring. Technology allows for an entirely new type of digital electronic aggression, cyberbullying, which takes place through chat rooms, instant messaging, social media, and other forms of digital electronic communication. Composition of peer groups, shifting demographics, changing societal norms, and modern technology are contextual factors that must be considered to understand and effectively react to bullying in the United States. Youth are embedded in multiple contexts and each of these contexts interacts with individual characteristics of youth in ways that either exacerbate or attenuate the association between these individual characteristics and bullying perpetration or victimization. Recognizing that bullying behavior is a major public health problem that demands the concerted and coordinated time and attention of parents, educators and school administrators, health care providers, policy makers, families, and others concerned with the care of children, this report evaluates the state of the science on biological and psychosocial consequences of peer victimization and the risk and protective factors that either increase or decrease peer victimization behavior and consequences.

Back Page I cry every day before and after school because I have been a victim of bullying for most of my life. I had the misconception that once I reached middle school that I would be free from being [a] victim. Wow! Was I wrong [!] I am now a 7th grader and the torture continues. I suffered in silence until I met Ms. Smart; I feel some level of comfort because she let us know that she does not tolerate bullying in her classroom. Like many others I tried to commit suicide by jumping out of a window of a three-story building. I am also a cutter. I want to live but how? –Seventh-grade student Unfortunately, stories like that of this middle school student are all too common. The social pressures of bullying can lead to intolerable unpleasantness for some students. Bullying in schools is a growing concern in the United States. Bullying causes many problems, not only for the victim, but also for the bully. Students desire a safe haven at home and school; however, problems with bullies lead to insecurity in the victim and make home and school feel more like a prison than the safe haven they are supposed to be. Bullying via the Internet or cyberbullying is steadily increasing. A bully can harass someone via text, email or hurtful comments on a social network site. This has led to a whole new breed of bullying. A bully no longer has to be face to face. He/she can now say harmful things about a person through the Internet for others to read and comment. No matter how it is looked at, bullying is wrong. It’s never okay. It’s never cool. It never makes one person look better than another because they are bullying someone. This book offer strategies as to what to do if one should find themselves as a victim of bullying behavior as well as if you happen to be the bully. Also covered are tips for parents, teachers and community members.

"This book is designed to act as a vaccine against bullies, jerks, and other obnoxious people. By preparing for them in advance, you can effectively inoculate yourself against the worst of their behavior. Yes, they will still be obnoxious, but you won't be as annoyed and upset by their behavior, and that is at least something" -- p. [4] of cover.

Long before most school programs begin anti-bullying campaigns, young girls are getting a full education in social aggression. Girls as young as age five are experiencing acts of bullying, disguised as friendship, that shake the carefully laid foundations of their self-image, personal values, and beliefs about peer relationships. Based on thought-provoking discussions, engaging games, strength-discovering exercises, and confidence-boosting fun, the hands-on activities in Friendship and Other Weapons build critical knowledge and friendship survival skills such as: · Recognizing the Red Flags of Girl Bullying · Responding Assertively to Bullying Behavior · Realizing Personal Strengths · Becoming an Ally to Others Facing Bullying · Resolving Conflicts Directly · Using Technology and Social Media Ethically This photocopiable resource book provides educators, social workers and counsellors with a complete, ready-to-use group curriculum to help young girls aged 5–11 build constructive and fulfilling friendships.

Overview of field of bullying prevention by three acknowledged experts in the field

I cry every day before and after school because I have been a victim of bullying for most of my life. I had the misconception that once I reached middle school that I would be free from being [a] victim. Wow! Was I wrong [!] I am now a 7th grader and the torture continues. I suffered in silence until I met Ms. Smart; I feel some level of comfort because she let us know that she does not tolerate bullying in her classroom. Like many others I tried to commit suicide by jumping out of a window of a three-story building. I am also a cutter. I want to live but how? -Seventh-grade student Unfortunately, stories like that of this middle school student are all too common. The social pressures of bullying can lead to intolerable unpleasantness for some students. Bullying in schools is a growing concern in the United States. Bullying causes many problems, not only for the victim, but also for the bully. Students desire a safe haven at home and school; however, problems with bullies lead to insecurity in the victim and make home and school feel more like a prison than the safe haven they are supposed to be. Bullying via the Internet or cyberbullying is steadily increasing. A bully can harass someone via text, email or hurtful comments on a social network site. This has led to a whole new breed of bullying. A bully no longer has to be face to face. He/she can now say harmful things about a person through the Internet for others to read and comment. No matter how it is looked at, bullying is wrong. It's never okay. It's never cool. It never makes one person look better than another because they are bullying someone. This book offer strategies as to what to do if one should find themselves as a victim of bullying behavior as well as if you happen to be the bully. Also covered are tips for parents, teachers and community members.

For a long time, there was nothing being done to stop bullying. "Don't pay any attention" or "Just ignore it", would be the response you'd get if you were to tell an adult, but that never worked. Bullies would go out of their way to make their victims miserable. Nowadays, they are being faced with consequences for their actions. We need to take a closer look though at what makes them a bully. My story tells what I went through and my explanation, "It's something they don't like about themselves so they put others down to make themselves feel better. In general, that is it, but there are specific factors such as disruptive home life, harsh parental discipline, peer delinquency, living in an area where the crime rate is high or use of alcohol. While a bully's behavior is unacceptable, it is also a cry for help. With this being said. I hope my story will help victims of bullying, realize that it isn't, at all, them.

What causes a person to bully another? Is it hate? Jealousy? Their own self-brokenness? To be a bully is a tragedy of the soul, but worse yet, to be the victim of bullying goes beyond just a tragedy but utter devastation and destruction of an innocent person's personhood. The victim, the target of a bully's inner inadequacies, is violated by someone who has severe brokenness. The victim is now left fragmented, depending on the degree of bullying and the strength of the victim to brace themselves against the pressure. Bullying is the stealing of an innocent person's right to be who they are. Their space is violated, and their valuables are stolen. They are left to feel like a victim, a fragment of who they were or who they used to be. A bully takes away, by force and illegally, the rights of someone else to live in their own unique and personal identity as a single-framed human being. Bullying is a disease of the soul that, if left unchecked, will carry over into a society of adults and leaders who have continued their bad characters from childhood into their adulthood, giving us a society that is filled with a denseness of moral "bullies." Bullying must be stopped. There is a cure, and there has to be a willingness to work together to end its infectious quest because it leaves an innocent person fragmented and needing to pick up the pieces of their lives to put them back together again. For some, it is very difficult; therefore, they sought a way out, so they commit suicide; for others, though it is very difficult, they seek help for the restoration of their "selves" so that they may continue with their lives, and yet for others, they live broken for the rest of their lives, society being robbed of who they could have been and the virtue that they could have contributed. Bullying is everyone's problem, and we all must work with intense purpose to destroy it from the root. To the bully, what makes a bully a bully? It is indeed brokenness on the inside. Issues and troubles are not always the reason for one's brokenness; brokenness, at times, occurs due to a flaw in one's character. Many who have everything they could ever wish for bully others because there is a certain satisfaction in inflicting pain. To the bully, it is not okay to steal someone's soul (mind, will, emotions). The toxic behavior of bullying another person is a sign that a bully needs psychological intervention. For a bully, there is hope; there is help. If you are a bully, seek help because bullying not only destroys another person's life, but it destroys the bully's as well because there will be consequences. To the victim, know that it is not your fault but that you are an innocent victim of someone's brokenness. What happened to you is tragic and unjust. You can recover all that you have lost. In your journey of healing, continue to be patient with yourself and allow yourself to flow in grieve and recovery because, at the end of your journey, you will have become a stronger and wiser version of yourself. It'll be you but with greater wisdom and greater power. The bullying will have given you the opportunity to learn and grow in ways you may not have grown had the bullying never occurred. So deal with it, process it, grieve, then move on. Use it to strengthen YOU, adding to your wealth of moral goodness.