Stop the Bullying Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Stop the Bullying - Essay Example Although there is no universal definition of bullying it is widely thought to be a negative behavior which reflects aggressiveness through which the person intends to harm and hurt the victim. Farrington (1993), an English criminologist, defined bullying as: â€Å"Repeated oppression, psychological or physical, of a less powerful person by a more powerful person.† This, however, is the definition of when the bully is an individual although it is very often seen that bullying is also done in groups. Thus, for that purpose a more fitted and revised definition could be: Bullying is repeated oppression, psychological or physical, of a less powerful person by a more powerful or group of persons (Rigby, 2007, p. 15). The bully keeps on acting that way and the victim is helpless in that that he cannot defend himself from the bully (Olweus, 1999). Concisely, bullying can be referred to as the â€Å"systematic abuse of power†. And here power does not necessarily refer to physica l strength, but it could also be emotional or mental. For instance, a bully may have a more powerful personality, might be mentally tougher, have ambition and be insensitive. Bullying may happen in several contexts, such as childhood as well as adulthood. Nevertheless, bullying has been, and still is, most associated with schools. Bullying could be conducted by a group or by one person alone. Normally it is supposed that bullying occurs between students; however, it is possible for there to be a teacher-pupil and pupil-teacher bullying too. The general idea of bullying is also that it involves beating and physical violence – the larger and older child hurting the weaker one – but again, there also exists verbal bullying, wherein the bully teases and hurls verbal abuses at his victim; indirect bullying in which the bully socially manipulates the victim and uses him for attacks within the class; and relational bullying which refers to disrupting peace between peers and h arming their relationship. This could be done by talking bad about others, spreading rumors, and socially excluding people. A more recent form has been cyberbullying – bullying others over the internet (Smith, 2013). It is about time that bullying is addressed and reduced. It is an intolerable behavior due to the way the powerless victim is physically, verbally or psychologically oppressed by the bully and for no rhyme or reason. Bullying among adults is not tolerated – we also raise voice against domestic abuse between a husband and his wife, and between the parents and their children. However, school bullying has not been addressed to the same extent (Rigby, 2007). How children become bullies â€Å"When you really take a close look at bullying, it's happening with kids who feel the need to be aggressive after being treated in an aggressive manner themselves†¦ They're the kids who may be suffering from abuse or from just not having their needs met at school or a t home† - Paul Quinlan (Hopson, 2002). According to Quinlan 2-16% of the below-18 age group bullies each other. Here a very important factor to probe into is how a child becomes a bully. That is the root cause of the problem and therefore it needs to be understood in order to solve the issue. More often than not, children dealing with difficult situations at home end up bullying others to regain the lost self-esteem and feel important and worthy. Such situations could be fights between their parents, financial problems, a drunkard parent who abuses them, and so on. Many times the bully