Bullies: Born or Created?

Bullying is a word that is frequently heard and seen in all kinds of media; newspaper headlines, on TV, Facebook and all other forms of social media. It is common to read that a teenage girl commited suicide due to bullying. Bullying is everywhere: in schools, at home, on the internet, in the streets and even in the work place. Bullying is referred to as a specific form of injurious violence, related to short and long term emotional hurt. Bullying can take a number of different forms. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s Building Respectful and Safe Schools (2010) recognize four types of bullying: physical bullying, verbal bullying, hidden bullying and cyber bullying. (National Centre Against Bullying, 2010) Psychologists generally define bullying as a frequent physical or verbal abuse that implies power difference deliberately causing another person to suffer. (BAZELON, 2013). The findings of researches conducted about violence send alarming signals about the issue of bullying. A study piloted by the United States Department of Justice shows that 1/3 of all adolescences report being bullied at school and 85% of bullying occurs in the presence of peers. [ 1; 67% ] The study also showed that boy bullies are likely to rely on corporal violence more than girl bullies, who often use teasing, rumor-spreading, exclusion, and social isolation. Bullies generally have some common features including undeveloped social skills, lack of kindness and empathy, weak control of desire and addiction of watching violent TV shows and playing more violent video games. (Sampson, 2003). Due to the increased bullying in schools, researchers argue whether bullies are born or made. People often ask why children bully. Why some ch...

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[ 6; 100% ] National Centre Against Bullying. (2010). Four Kinds of Bullying. Retrieved December 28, 2013, from National Centre Against Bullying: [ 6; 78% ] http://www.ncab.org.au/fourkindsofbullying/ Pinker, S. (2002). The Blank Slate-The Modern Denial of Human Nature. Retrieved December 25, 2013, from Edu Cause Website: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ff0616s.pdf Sampson, R. (2003). [ 7; 100% ] Bullying in Schools. Washington: The U.S. Department of Justice.

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