Bullying: A Major Social Problem in the United States

1525 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Introduction of anti bullying

Bullying has become a major problem facing the United States today. The American Psychological Association reports that roughly 40% to 80% of children are involved in bullying on some level during their time in school. (APA, 2014) The magnitude of the problem can be observed in the statistics. In the United States, a total of 4,080,879 children between the ages of five and 18 have been the victims of bullying compared to 3,892,199 who have reported that they have engaged in bullying someone else. Additionally, 851,755 said that they have been both the victim and the bully. That's a whopping 8,824,833 people in the United States that have been involved in bullying behavior on one level or another. (High, B., 2000 Census)

Before we can effectively identify and understand trends in bullying, we must first understand what bullying is. The most common definition of bullying is intentionally and habitually causing physical or emotional harm or pain to others. There is one major flaw with this definition. Pain is subjective, therefore the pain, or its magnitude cannot directly be seen, nor can it be felt by anyone other than the person experiencing it. Therefore, simply defining bullying as "causing pain" leaves to individual interpretation what does or does not constitute bullying. Perhaps a better definition would be any act, physical, verbal, or otherwise that a person perceives to be a threat to his or her physical, emotional or psychological well-being. This definition does not go without flaw either. It is admittedly a rather broad definition and could likely result in the term "bullying" being used rather loosely, however, in order to accurately define what does and does not constitute bullying, we must judge eac...

... middle of paper ...

... http://www.bullypolice.org

School Bullying. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_bullying

Bolton, Jose. & Graeve, Stan. (2005). No Room for Bullies: From the Classroom to Cyberspace. Boys Town, Nebraska: Boys Town Press.

Office of Statistics and Programming, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC using WISQARS™. (2010). 10 Leading Causes of Death by Age Group, United States-2010. CDC.gov. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/leadingcauses.html

Bullying Statistics, Stop Bullying, Harassment, and Anti-Bully in School/Work. (2013) Bullying and Suicide. Retrieved from http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-and-suicide.htm

Bully Police USA: A Watch-dog Organization, Advocating for Bullied Children & Reporting on State Anti-Bullying Laws (2012). Retrieved from http://www.bullypolice.org

Show More
Related

  • The Idaho Anti-Bullying Program

    1629 Words  | 4 Pages

    For the school year of 2012-2013, there were about 98,328 public schools in the nation, that would mean that in each and every elementary, Middle, and High school in the nation, an estimated two students do not show up to school because of the fear of being bullied. “Further, students who are being bullied may begin stealing money or being dishonest about being ill” (Levine, 2014). “Children who engage in bullying from a young age may be involved in what is known as precursory bullying. Precursory bullying has implications for future bullying, and is understood as ultimately destructive and damaging” (Levine and Tamburrino, 2014). There is no doubt about this, we’ve all heard about adults that have been bullied as children and are not successful members of society.

    Read More

  • Phoebe Prince Bullying

    557 Words  | 2 Pages

    As you can see, bullying is a huge problem. We need to start advocating for the victims and assess the problem. Today over 3.5 million teens are being bullied. “ Fighting means you could lose. Bullying means you can’t. A bully wants to beat somebody; he does not want to fight them,” Andrew Vachss-American crime fiction

    Read More

  • The Issue of Bullying

    1757 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Keep a Lid on Bullying with a Complaint Box.” Curriculum Review, Dec 2003, 11. PaperClip Communications. Infotrac 15 Aug 2004.

    Read More

  • Bullying in Schools Should be Stopped

    2002 Words  | 5 Pages

    Broderick, Ryan. "9 Teenage Suicides In The Last Year Were Linked To Cyber-Bullying On Social Network." BuzzFeed. N.p., 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

    Read More

  • Conflict Theory On Bullying

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bullying has been around for decades and yet it is still a reoccurring problem, and it is only getting worse. The National Center for Educational Statistics, in 2009, said nearly 1 in 3 students between the ages of 12 and 18 reported being bullied in school. Eight years earlier, only 14 percent of that population said they had experienced bullying(Ollove,2014). There are two types of bullying the direct form and indirect form, in the direct form the victim receives physical harm example kicking pushing shoving. In the indirect form the victim receives emotional or mental harm by name-calling, rejection, gossip, threats, or insults(Green,2007). It doesn’t matter which way the victim was bullied it still causes

    Read More

  • The Effects of Bullying

    1600 Words  | 4 Pages

    More than seventy-five percent of students are harassed, bullied, or cyberbullied and experience physical, psychological, and/or emotional abuse. More than twenty percent of students admit to being a bully or participating in bully-like activities. On a daily average, 160,000 children miss school because they fear they will be bullied if they attend classes. On a monthly average 282,000 students are physically attacked by a bully. Bullying victims are more likely to experience suicidal though...

    Read More

  • The Consequences Of Bullying In The 21st Century

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bullying has been around for a long time, but it has been recognized in the 21st century because of suicidal deaths and an increased amount of people wanting harsher punishments on bullying. Many national surveys show that a large amount of bullying in schools is a form of direct bullying (Garby). Bullying is very harsh and people experience it at least once in their life. Just a little bit of bullying can cause people to commit suicide. There is no doubt that bullying still occurs and changes need to be made, but we need the help of everyone to stop bullying.

    Read More

  • Bullying: An Aviodable Harm

    1859 Words  | 4 Pages

    For many years, bullying was seen as a rite of passage but recently it has

    Read More

  • Why Bullying Can’t Be Stopped?

    2036 Words  | 5 Pages

    McQuade, III, Samuel, James Colt, and Nancy Meyer. Cyber Bullying: Protecting Kids and Adults from Online Bullies. First Edition. Road West, Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2009. 47-49. Print.

    Read More

  • Different Perspectives of Bullying

    1807 Words  | 4 Pages

    Everyone has been bullied or encountered someone being bullied at some point of their life. Whether it would be physically or verbally both can be exceedingly traumatizing and can have a long-term psychological influence on children’s development. Majority people may define bullying in a more physical term; nevertheless that’s not always the case. The act of bullying can occur in several ways and in reality affect the individual in the same way. Bullying is generally defined as repeated, negative, and harmful actions focused at target throughout a course of time, exhibiting a sense of power difference between the bully and the victim (Olweus, 1993; Limber & Mihalic, 1999 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005). A survey was conducted in the United States estimating that over six million children, about 30% in grade six through ten have experienced frequent bullying in a school environment (Nansel, 2001 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005). Many people might debate that bullying is something that every child goes through and is simply a part of growing up, although there are several damaging consequences that happens to the child’s brain. Bullying causes the child to feel upset, isolated, frightened, anxious, and depressed. They feel like they reason they are being picked on is because there is something wrong with them and may even lose their confidence feel unsafe going to school (Frenette, 2013 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005) Anthropologically, sociologically, or psychologically, bullying can be analyzed through different perspectives and several questions can be asked based on the topic:

    Read More

  • How Does Bullying Affect Teenagers?

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bullying is an issue that has been around for decades and is something that can affect everyone, no matter what his or her age is. Even though bullying has changed over the years from being physical abuse and harassment that happens on the playgrounds of schoolyards to tormenting over the Internet. The same groups are still affected namely adolescents. Statistically about 30 percent of all teenagers in the United States are bullied in one-way or another (“Teenage Bullying”).

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Bullying In Schools

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bullying is something that is not something new and is actually something that society continues to face. Over the years, bullying has been looked at as being so ordinary in schools that it is continuously overlooked as an emanate threat to students and has been lowered to a belief that bullying is a part of the developmental stage that most young children will experience then overcome (Allebeck, 2005, p. 129). Not everyone gets over the extreme hurt that can come as an effect from bullying, for both the bully and the victim. Because of this, we now see bullying affecting places such as the workplace, social events and even the home. The issue of bullying is not only experienced in schools, but the school environment is one of the best places

    Read More

  • A Treatment of Solutions to Bullying in Schools

    1190 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bullying has always been present within the United States. Although the issue has been around for a long time, it continues to grow and become more of problem. It is said that about 160,000 children within the United States are refusing to go to school because of bullying. Another statistic is that within American schools alone, there are an estimated 2.1 billion bullies and 2.7 billion victims (Dan Olewus, MBNBD). The numbers presented here are outrageous and although there are organizations to stop bullying, obviously there needs to be a new set of solutions. Any type of bullying presents problems to children, “Suicide, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, trouble with the law, poor performance in school and work, and lack of involvement in socially accepted activities are some of the difficulties resulting from bullying (Austin, Reynolds, Barnes, Shirley). Of course, there is more than just a single type of bullying. Feeding ground for bullies can range anywhere from text-message or cyberbullying to physical bullying in schools. Also, bullies can begin to strike at a young age and could also be; teenage, middle-age, or even the elderly. Even though there are these many versions of problematic bullies, the largest bullying problems take place within the school setting: a place that is supposed to be safe for children rather than harmful. Although it seems impossible to completely get rid of bullying, these are a few suggested solutions; making the school informed on bullying issues, schools implementing rules on bullying, and having students positively use electronics to stop bullying.

    Read More

  • The Problem of Bullying

    2424 Words  | 5 Pages

    Bullying does not have a standard definition. Bullying can be anything from calling someone else names, beating them up just for the fun of it, to texting or messaging them on the internet or any mobile device. Any person can be the victim of bullying, not just children. Bullying causes many issues, physically, emotionally, and mentally, not only for the victim, but for their entire families as well. Bullies have many different reasons as to why they start bullying someone else. The actions done to the victim leaves them with only a few options on how to stop being bullied. How they handle it is always different.

    Read More

  • Causes Of Bullying Essay

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    An estimated amount of 160,000 students across the United States misses school each day due to being a victim of bullying. From a present study, 29% of students involved in bullying, 14% of the children were said to be victims, 7% were bullies, and 8% were bullies and victims. The worst type of social behavior stems from bullying, and leads to complications in a student’s future. Bullying is a way of expressing aggressive behavior that is intended, and continues that sometimes leads to physical or mental injuries. Those who are victims of bullying, lack self-esteem, and become easily depressed by small objects. There are four common types of bullying: verbal, physical, relational aggression, and

    Read More

More about Bullying: A Major Social Problem in the United States

Open Document