Crime is a prevalent issue in the world and no country can be singled out as crime-free. The youths are the most affected population, particularly in perpetrating criminal undertakings. Bullying emerges as one of the major crimes of the youth, with both the victims and the perpetrators being affected in an adverse manner. While some people may be of the opinion that bullying satisfies an aspect of life, the fact is that both the victims and perpetrators of bullying need equal attention in addressing and alleviating the issue and the associated outcomes. This synthesis essay embarks on bullying as a crime of the youth to explore the differences behind traditional and nontraditional bullying, the reasons behind the youth’s engagement in it, the effects for both the victims and perpetrators, and the ways of addressing the issue.
While exploring literature in search of articles about “Criminal Behaviors among the Youth,” one of the articles that drew my attention was co-authored by Patchin and Hinduja (2011). The article bears the title “ Traditional and nontraditional bullying among youth: A test of general strain theory.” This is a journal article that depicts bullying as a new form of crime that attracts the youth of the contemporary times.
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Differences between traditional and nontraditional bullying
Both the traditional and nontraditional bullying involves engagements comprising of intentional harm that are repeatedly carried out on an individual or group of individuals. The intended impact in both types of bullying is pain to the victim (Gale group, 2016). Of these two kinds of bullying, none can be said to be better than the other as each of them has an element that causes devastating outcomes, particularly to the victim.
The traditional bullying can either be verbal, physical or social. Verbal bullying entails calling of names that humiliates, teases, or mocks the victim either directly or indirectly. Indirect verbal bullying involves the perpetrator’s attack without the victim’s immediate knowledge. This may entail a description of the victim to other people in a distasteful way (Gale Group, 2016). Physical bullying entails an attack of one’s body to cause pain. Unlike in most torture situations where one is attacked with a view to offer some critical information, a bully tortures the victim, not to obtain information, but because he or she has the capacity and power to do so. They engage in torture because they can, they want to, and they enjoy it (Goetz, 2010). Striking, kicking, pushing, and punching are some of the examples of physical bullying. In essence, bullying of this kind involves the stronger preying on the weaker members of their social groupings (Goetz, 2010). Social bullying involves spreading of rumors that demean the victim’s social status in relation to that of his or her peers. It is similar to indirect verbal bullying in that the bully’s identity is often unknown to the victim (Gale Group, 2016). Whether verbal, physical, or social; traditional bullying has adverse repercussions, some of which may be intolerable for the victim.
The nontraditional bullying is commonly referred to as cyberbullying and entails the use of technology in undertaking the activities aimed at causing harm to the target (Patchin & Hinduja, 2011). It may take the form of impersonation, trickery, insults and threats, or exclusion (Peebles, 2014). These activities entail elements of harassment and humiliation for the victims. Computers, smartphones, and tablets are some of the technologies used by the perpetrators of bullying to create a low self-esteem for their peers. The acts of bullying in such cases include the dissemination of hurtful text messages, and creation of web pages and social media profiles with an aim to spread rumors about the targeted individuals. Patchin and Hinduja, in another article published in 2014, posit that cyberbullying is so bad that it may involve taking of a victim’s photos or videos to expose his or her private life and yield embarrassment for him or her. The invention of apps through which to remain anonymous affords the perpetrators high levels of security in comparison to the traditional bullying where face to face communication has always seemed inevitable (Peebles, 2014).
Reasons for Youth’s Engagement in Bullying
In order to understand the reasons behind the youth’s engagement in bullying activities, there is a need to understand the meaning of being a youth. The term “youth,” according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2009), refers to the individuals whose age ranges from 15 to 24. This is the age group of inclusion in this assignment in alignment with bullying. Generally, youth entails various developmental milestones with one of the characteristics being identity formation. The latter becomes one of the elements that determine the occurrences of bullying, either as a perpetrator or victim. The notion of self-esteem is particularly important for the youth and a critical determinant of how one approaches life and the associated occurrences. Nair, James and Santhosh (2015) argue that most individuals in the youth stage experience distress due to lack of awareness of their strengths and weaknesses. where one perceives strength in him- or herself but seems to be degraded by the peers, he or she may perpetrate bullying as a way of proving that he is strong. Ideally, people who are perceived by their peers as weak are highly likely to be victimized. When one feels victimized and at the same time exhibits the feelings of strength, then bullying others becomes inevitable (Nair, et al., 2015). In this sense, the youth find themselves in bullying endeavors as a way of proving themselves right and others wrong as far as their level of strength is concerned.
While one may become a bully due to occurrences of victimization, Temkin (2014) criticizes this and presents the view that such a reason is simplistic. She argues that bullies are not always the worst kids as per the perceptions of a majority. Popularity, coupled with aggression, leads some people into bullying. The desire to belong is one factor that pushes the youth to perpetrate bullying. Where one feels a threat for this desire, he or she acts fast by sidelining those who threaten his or her social status (Temkin, 2014). Status remains a critical aspect during identity formation and one that a youth will mostly protect. Worth noting is the fact that peers are more important in the youth stage than parents and other relatives. As such, peer influence becomes an important determinant of what an individual engages in. It emerges that engagement in delinquent conduct, including substance abuse, sexual activities, and other kinds of defiance become part of the youth’s life, sometimes as coping mechanisms. In essence, it becomes difficult for a parent, teacher, or any other elder to discourage a youth’s engagement in various behaviors as the desire to belong takes priority in such an individual’s life. Bullying becomes part of life for an aggressive youth, particularly as a means to maintain and protect one’s status within a social group (Temkin, 2014). This phenomenon has been worsened by technology which now makes it possible for one to engage in bullying endeavors without exposing one’s identity.
Effects of Bullying on Perpetrators and Victims
According to Strickland (2017) bullying has adverse effects for both the victim and the perpetrator. Stress and depression are the major repercussions experienced by the bullies and the victims alike. Other effects of bullying on the perpetrators include social withdrawal, anxiety, delinquency, and poor performance in academic pursuits. Bullying may also yield antisocial personality disorder for the perpetrator at adulthood (Swearer & Hymel, 2015a). The worst experience for the perpetrator is that their engagements are not supported by anyone since they entail behavioral challenges that everyone would wish to avoid. As such, they end up being expelled from school with the most lenient kind of punishment being suspension from school. Once suspended or expelled from school or any other institution, such individuals escalate in other delinquencies and end up in rehabilitation or jail and this interprets into some kind of expulsion from the society. Eventually, it becomes difficult for such a person to avoid withdrawal symptoms and vulnerability to the antisocial personality traits (Swearer & Hymel, 2015b).
Where a perpetrator of bullying may be lucky enough to evade suspension or expulsion from school, chances of dropping out of school voluntarily are quite high (Zuckerman, 2016). Other long-term effects experienced by a bully and which may be inevitable include alcoholism abuse of drugs at adulthood, sexual immorality, criminal convictions at adulthood, and abuse toward romantic partners, children, or spouses (Zuckerman, 2016). One can easily predict the outcomes of various delinquencies in which a bully is involved. For instance, sexual immorality may yield unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted ailments. The implication is that it may be tough for a bully to evade most of the life adversities in his or her environment due to his or her inability to avoid being part of various delinquencies.
For a victim of bullying, the effects of bullying can last a lifetime. According to Zuckerman (2016), an individual who was bullied at some point, in the childhood or youth stage, is highly likely to bully others at adulthood. Where one takes control of his or her life as not to become a bully, the idea of being bullied is always in the mind. One remembers the incidences of being a victim of bullying and feels like the same can happen at the particular instance of thinking about it (Zuckerman, 2016). This can create fear in the way one interacts with others in the work place and other social scenes.
Low self-esteem is one of the major outcomes for the victims of bullying. A study conducted by Ditch the Label Organization (2014) among youthful participants of ages 13 to 22 found out that 83 out of every 100 participants had an experience of bullying that adversely affected his or her self-esteem. Coupled with stress, low self-esteem can yield other adverse effects, including and not limited to suicidal contemplations. Strickland (2017) offers an example in which a victim of bullying, Brenda Vela, decided to commit suicide and shot herself on the chest in the presence of her parents and family members. Vela was a victim of cyberbullying, an experience that lowered her self-esteem and became a source of intolerable stress. Suicidal attempts and contemplations are a common phenomenon in bullying. Zuckerman (2016) found 47 published research studies that reported the likelihood of bullies and victims of bullying to commit suicide or engage in suicidal thoughts. The research by Ditch the Label (2014) also found out that 10% of the participants who had experienced bullying had at some point tried to commit suicide while 30% had experienced suicidal thoughts or engaged in self-harming endeavors. The implication is that bullying can be fatal to both the victim and the perpetrators and, therefore, there is need for action.
Addressing Bullying and the Associated Effects
It is evident that bullying affects both the victims and perpetrators alike. Most of the approaches used in alleviating bullying activities, however, tend to focus on protecting the victim alone. The suspension and expulsion tactics, which are categorized under zero-tolerance policies, are solely meant to protect the victims and condemn the perpetrator. This means that the people involved in finding solutions for the bullying engagements do not depict a concern for the negative effects on the bullies (Swearer & Hymel, 2015a). Worth noting is the fact that both the victim and perpetrator are persons who have others who care about them. Every parent would be proud to have a child who behaves well and ends up being successful at adulthood. Expulsion and suspension of a youth from school, therefore, does not address the welfare of such an individual. While such kind of punishment may be geared toward changing the child for better, the zero-tolerance policies have eventually failed to create the society that everyone desires (Strickland, 2017). Denying a child the chance to complete his or her academic pursuits further condemns such a child to the misery of joblessness and the loss of a chance to contribute to development of his or her society. Strickland (2017) suggests the adoption of the positive behavioral interventions and support (PBIS) to cater to the welfare of both the bully and victims.
In alignment with self-esteem, Swearer and Hymel (2015b) advice parents and guardians to inculcate high self-esteem in their children so that they can believe in their strength without relying on someone else’s approval. Low self-esteem creates the need for one to seek others’ opinion in alignment with how he or she feels or thinks about him- or herself. Where one gets a different opinion from what he or she anticipated, then bullying may be the outcome. This kind of endeavor comes not out of choice but the desire for approval from peers.
Conclusion
Bullying emerges as the newest form of violence among the youth. Technology has made it easier for perpetrators to escalate in bullying endeavors since they can remain anonymous to the victims. Both the traditional and nontraditional bullying have similar outcomes since the intention of the bully is to inflict pain or cause humiliation to the victim. The main reasons why the youth engage in bullying is to maintain and protect their social status, particularly in the identify formation stage. Sometimes one wants to prove that he or she is right and others are wrong as far as one’s perception of strengths and weaknesses are concerned. Irrespective of the reasons behind bullying, both the victim and perpetrator experience stressful moments which may yield extreme conditions, including fatality through suicidal attempts. The zero-tolerance policies tend to favor the victims and disregard the negative effects of bullying on perpetrators. There is, therefore, a need to stimulate the adoption of the PBIS to ensure that the welfare of the victims and perpetrators is addressed since they are all important to the society. The implication is that bullying has to be addressed as a social problem that affects all those involved rather than the victim alone.
References
Ditch the Label Organization (2014). Bullying may have life-long effects. Therapy Today, 25 (4), 1. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost
Gale Group (2016). Differences between cyberbullying and traditional bullying. Gale Students Resources in Context. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/ReferenceDetailsPage/DocumentToolsPortletWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&u=groves&p=SUIC&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ2181500310&zid=6fd20aaf5793389959fde88575ac3810
Goetz, S. K. (ed.). (2010). Terminus: Collected papers on Harry Porter, 7-11 August 2008. Lulu.com. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=nffbAgAAQBAJ&dq=physical+bullying+and+infliction+of+body+pain&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Nair, K. R., James, J. K. & Santhosh, K. R. (2015). Identity crisis among early adolescents in relations to abusive experiences in the childhood, social support and parental support. Journal of Psychosocial Research, 10 (1), 165-173. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com
Patchin, J. W., & Hinduja, S. (2011). Traditional and nontraditional bullying among youth: A test of general strain theory. Youth & Society , 43 (2), 727-751. Doi: 10.1177/0044118X10366951
Patchin, J.W. & Hinduja, S. (2014). Cyberbullying: Identification, prevention, & response. Cyberbullying Research Center. Retrieved from https://cyberbullying.org/Cyberbullying-Identification-Prevention-Response.pdf
Peebles, E. (2014). Cyberbullying: Hiding behind the screen. Paediatrics Child Health, 19 (10), 527-528. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4276384/
Swearer, S. M. & Hymel, S. (2015a). Bullying and discrimination in schools: Exploring variations across student subgroups. School Psychology Review, 44 (4), 504-509. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com
Swearer, S. M. & Hymel, S. (2015b). Understanding the psychology of bullying: Moving toward a social-ecological diathesis-stress model. American Psychologist, 70 (4), 344-353. Doi: 10.1037/a003892
Strickland, A. (2017, June 21). Bullying is a ‘serious public health problem,’ experts say. Cable News Network. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/10/health/bullying-public-health-zero-tolerance/index.html
Temkin, D. (2014, September 4). Why do youth bully? The answer isn’t simple. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-temkin/why-do-youth-bully_b_5113703.html
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2009). Definition of youth. United Nations. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/youth/fact-sheets/youth-definition.pdf
Zuckerman, D. (2016). Bullying harms victims and perpetrators of all ages. Journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, 63-66. Retrieved from https://www.chausa.org/docs/default-source/health-progress/bullying-harms-victims-and-perpetrators-of-all-ages.pdf?sfvrsn=2
