DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
What Is Bullying?
Bullying among children encompasses a variety of negative acts
carried out repeatedly over time. It involves a real or perceived
imbalance of power, with the more powerful child or group attacking
those who are less powerful. Bullying can take three
forms: physical (hitting, kicking, spitting, pushing, taking personal
belongings); verbal (taunting, malicious teasing, name calling,
making threats); and psychological (spreading rumors, manipulating
social relationships, or engaging in social exclusion, extortion,
or intimidation).
The NICHD survey found that males tend to bully and be bullied
more frequently than females. For males, experiencing physical
and verbal bullying is most common; for females, verbal bullying
(both taunting and insults of a sexual nature) and spreading rumors
are most common. Bullying generally begins in the elementary
grades, peaks in the sixth through eighth grades, and persists
into high school.
The Effects of Bullying
The NICHD study found that bullying has long-term and shortterm
psychological effects on both those who bully and those who
are bullied. Victims experienced loneliness and reported having
trouble making social and emotional adjustments, difficulty making
friends, and poor relationships with classmates. Victims of
bullying often suffer humiliation, insecurity, and a loss of selfesteem,
and they may develop a fear of going to school. The impact
of frequent bullying often accompanies these victims into
adulthood; they are at greater risk of suffering from depression
and other mental health problems, including schizophrenia. In
rare cases, they may commit suicide.
Bullying behavior has been linked to other forms of antisocial
behavior, such as vandalism, shoplifting, skipping and dropping
out of school, fighting, and the use of drugs and alcohol. Pioneering
research by Professor Dan Olweus in Norway and Sweden
suggests that bullying can lead to criminal behavior later in life:
60 percent of males who were bullies in grades 6 through 9 were
Addressing the Problem
of Juvenile Bullying
by Nels Ericson
Bullying, a form of violence among children, is common on
school playgrounds, in neighborhoods, and in homes throughout
the United States and around the world. Often occurring out of
the presence of adults or in front of adults who fail to intercede,
bullying has long been considered an inevitable and, in some
ways, uncontrollable part of growing up. School bullying has
come under intense public and media scrutiny recently amid
reports that it may have been a contributing factor in shootings at
Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, in 1999 and Santana
High School in Santee, CA, in early 2001 and in other acts of
juvenile violence including suicide. Bullying can affect the social
environment of a school, creating a climate of fear among students,
inhibiting their ability to learn, and leading to other antisocial
behavior. Nevertheless, through research and evaluation,
successful programs to recognize, prevent, and effectively intervene
in bullying behavior have been developed and replicated in
schools across the country. These schools send the message that
bullying behavior is not tolerated and, as a result, have improved
safety and created a more inclusive learning environment.
A recently published report by the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development (NICHD) on the U.S. contribution
to the World Health Organization’s Health Behavior in
School-Aged Children survey found that 17 percent of the respondents
had been bullied “sometimes” or “weekly,” 19 percent
had bullied others sometimes or weekly, and 6 percent had both
bullied others and been bullied. The researchers estimated that
1.6 million children in grades 6 through 10 in the United States
are bullied at least once a week and 1.7 million children bully
others as frequently. The survey, the first nationwide research on
the problem in this country, questioned 15,686 public and private
school students, grades 6 through 10, on their experiences with
bullying. In a study of 6,500 middle school students in rural
South Carolina, 23 percent said they had been bullied regularly
during the previous 3 months and 20 percent admitted bullying
another child regularly during that time (Olweus and Limber,
1999).
June 2001 #27
PRESORTED STANDARD
POSTAGE & FEES PAID
DOJ/OJJDP
PERMIT NO. G–91
Fact Sheet FS–200127
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Washington, DC 20531
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use $300
convicted of at least one crime as adults, compared with 23 percent
of males who did not bully; 35 to 40 percent of these former
bullies had three or more convictions by age 24, compared with
10 percent of those who did not bully.
The NICHD study found that those who bully and are bullied
appear to be at greatest risk of experiencing the following: loneliness,
trouble making friends, lack of success in school, and involvement
in problem behaviors such as smoking and drinking.
Addressing the Problem
A perpetrator’s bullying behavior does not exist in isolation.
Rather, it may indicate the beginning of a generally antisocial and
rule-breaking behavior pattern that can extend into adulthood.
Programs to address the problem, therefore, must reduce opportunities
and rewards for bullying behavior. The Olweus Bullying
Prevention Program, developed, refined, and systematically evaluated
in Bergen, Norway, in the mid-1980s, is the best-known initiative
designed to reduce bullying among elementary, middle,
and junior high school children (Olweus and Limber, 1999). The
strategy behind the program is to involve school staff, students,
and parents in efforts to raise awareness about bullying, improve
peer relations, intervene to stop intimidation, develop clear rules
against bullying behavior, and support and protect victims. The
program intervenes on three levels:
u School: Faculty and staff survey students anonymously to
determine the nature and prevalence of the school’s bullying
problem, increase supervision of students during breaks, and
conduct schoolwide assemblies to discuss the issue. Teachers
receive inservice training on how to implement the program.
u Classroom: Teachers and/or other school personnel introduce
and enforce classroom rules against bullying, hold regular
classroom meetings with students to discuss bullying, and
meet with parents to encourage their participation.
u Individual: Staff intervene with bullies, victims, and their
parents to ensure that the bullying stops.
The Bergen research showed that the program was highly effective
among students in elementary, middle, and junior high schools:
Bullying dropped by 50 percent or more during the program’s
2 years. Behavioral changes were more pronounced the longer the
program was in effect. The school climate improved, and the rate
of antisocial behavior, such as theft, vandalism, and truancy,
declined during the 2-year period.
For Further Information
For more information on the Bullying Prevention Program, contact
Susan P. Limber, Ph.D., Institute on Family and Neighborhood
Life, Clemson University, 158 Poole Agricultural Center, Clemson,
SC 29634–5205; 864–656–6271; 864–656–6281 (fax);
http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/ifnl/index.htm.
For information on the Blueprints for Violence Prevention series,
contact Delbert S. Elliot, Ph.D., Director, Center for the Study
and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, University
of Colorado at Boulder, Campus Box 439, Boulder, CO
80309–0439; 303–492–8465; 303–443–3297 (fax);
www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints/index.html.
For additional information on bullying and conflict resolution,
visit the following Web sites: Communities In Schools (www.
cisnet.org), the National Center for Conflict Resolution Education
(www.nccre.org), the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
(www.nwrel.org), and the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org).
Reference
Olweus, D., and Limber, S. 1999. Blueprints for Violence Prevention:
Bullying Prevention Program (Book Nine). Boulder, CO:
University of Colorado at Boulder, Institute of Behavioral
Science, Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.
Nels Ericson is a Senior Writer-Editor with the Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component
of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice
Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice,
and the Office for Victims of Crime.
FS–200127