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Overview
As the safety of U.S. schools has become an important public policy issue, interest in the problem of school bullying has intensified. New research indicates that this type of adolescent victimization occurs frequently, particularly in middle school grades, and can result in serious consequences for both bully and victim. In 2002, a report released by the U.S. Secret Service concluded that bullying played a significant role in many school shootings and that efforts should be made to eliminate bullying behavior. As awareness of harassment, intimidation and hate in the school setting has grown, state legislatures have begun to address this problem as well. At least 19 states have passed anti-bullying laws. At least three states enacted legislation relating to bullying and harassment during the 2005 legislative sessions: Arizona, Tennessee and Virginia.
What Is Bullying?
Before legislatures were required to define bullying in more precise terms, characterizing "bullying" had largely been a question of individual judgment--"we know what it is when we see it." Bullying includes harassment, intimidation to varying degrees, taunting and ridicule. Sometimes, bullies are motivated by hate and bias, sometimes by cultural norms, peer pressure or the desire to retaliate. Bullying may occur within the context of initiation rituals and be labeled "hazing," or it can be overtly or implicitly about gender, constituting sexual harassment. Sometimes, there is no readily identifiable reason for bullying; when kids are asked who school bullies target, their answers can be disturbing precisely because they are not extraordinary: bullies pick on kids who are "weaker," "smaller," "funny looking," or "dumb."
Although no standard or universally understood definition of bullying exists, certain elements usually are present. The first is a pattern of behavior over time--repeated exposure to intentional injury or discomfort inflicted by one or more students against another. This behavior may include physical contact, verbal assault, social ostracism, obscene gestures or other aggressive acts that cause the victim to feel fearful or distraught. More serious instances of bullying can result in physical injury or emotional trauma. A second common element is a perceived imbalance of power, which allows one student--or group of students--to victimize others.
The Legislative Response to Bullying
Since 1999, at least 16 states have passed laws to address harassment, intimidation and bullying in school. The primary intent of almost all these legislative efforts is to define bullying, to establish school or district-level policy that firmly prohibits such behavior, and to communicate that policy to students and their parents. Beyond that, however, states have taken different approaches on whether policy needs to go further and, if so, whether the legislature or another entity should be responsible for those details.
Because legislatures are beginning to pass laws prohibiting bullying behavior in school, it has become necessary to define the behavior that is prohibited. A significant challenge to crafting a clear definition of bullying is determining behavior that has crossed the line and should be punished--and to what degree--versus behavior that has not. The task of precisely defining bullying becomes even more difficult when other factors are considered, including the following:
- Differing circumstances surrounding each incident;
- Differing school expectations for student behavior;
- The intent and motivation behind the bullying behavior;
- Degrees of "victimization," which become more difficult to measure when physical injury is not present; and
- The resources available to deal with the problem.
Not surprisingly, states have taken different approaches to the task of defining bullying, where it takes place and what effects should be present to warrant punishment and/or intervention.
*The information listed above is only an excerpt of the report, entitled Tackling the Schoolyard Bully: Combining Policy Making with Prevention, By Finessa Ferrell-Smith, NCSL 2003. You can find a copy of the full report under the section Research & Reports.
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