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sunlit_musicHere is an insightful article on bullying provided by night_axe at the lj community deathtocapslock:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/perspective/stories/2006/1695363.htm
It's short, and a must-read.
The following text in italics is from the article and the text not in italics are my comments:
The article discusses how bullying is actually a form of abuse and how current strategies used for reducing bullying are actually inappropriate and distressing to bullying victims/survivors.
Some interventions currently established for dealing with bullying are inappropriate as they do not recognise that bullying is abuse.It also proposes this interesting solution to bullying:
Teachers should be considered responsible for both appropriate identification of the behaviours observed (as abusive or bullying) and for intervention under the provisions of the Children and Young Person's (Care and Protection Act),NSW 1998.
It is proposed that implementation of legislative requirements under this act ,for mandatory notification by teachers of all forms of abuse should be considered as a means of protective intervention in cases of bullying. This proposal also offers protection to teachers and schools from litigation in cases of serious per abuse.
The implementation of conflict resolution strategies for example, in dealing with child abuse would never be considered appropriate. We simply would never place an abused child in the same room as their abuser and try to mediate between them. Nor would we suggest that the abuse is in some way beneficial to the victim and 'character building'.
Key indicators to spot bullying:
Teachers currently often do not interpret bullying as abusive, but as mutually aggressive interactions between peers, leaving victims unprotected and unsupported.
Teachers use their professional judgement to determine if an incident is a conflict or fight or is indeed evidence of bullying.
And while it is difficult to do this with accuracy on every occasion in which there is an apparent altercation, key indicators such as regular injury to only one party, should be used to at least consider the possibility that abuse is occuring. The abuse of children by their peers, particularly when this is known to teachers, implicates these professionals in terms of child protection mandates.
I definitely agree that regular injury to one party is one form of bullying, although it is possible for both parties to be bullying each other.
I'm not sure what this line means, though:
However, it is evident that peer abuse not only occurs more frequently and therefore has a greater impact than other forms of abuse, it happens more frequently to males which is not the case for other forms of abuse.
If it's saying that peer abuse happens more often to males than other forms of abuse do, then I'm not sure if I can agree. It is hard to find out how true this is, given that bullying and other cases of abuse tend to go under-reported.
If this line is saying that peer abuse happens more often to males than females and people of other genders, then I respectfully disagree (as the research I've read and my own personal experience suggests that males are more likely to experience physical bullying at school, and that females are more likely to experience verbal and emotional bullying).
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/perspective/stories/2006/1695363.htm
It's short, and a must-read.
The following text in italics is from the article and the text not in italics are my comments:
The article discusses how bullying is actually a form of abuse and how current strategies used for reducing bullying are actually inappropriate and distressing to bullying victims/survivors.
Some interventions currently established for dealing with bullying are inappropriate as they do not recognise that bullying is abuse.It also proposes this interesting solution to bullying:
Teachers should be considered responsible for both appropriate identification of the behaviours observed (as abusive or bullying) and for intervention under the provisions of the Children and Young Person's (Care and Protection Act),NSW 1998.
It is proposed that implementation of legislative requirements under this act ,for mandatory notification by teachers of all forms of abuse should be considered as a means of protective intervention in cases of bullying. This proposal also offers protection to teachers and schools from litigation in cases of serious per abuse.
The implementation of conflict resolution strategies for example, in dealing with child abuse would never be considered appropriate. We simply would never place an abused child in the same room as their abuser and try to mediate between them. Nor would we suggest that the abuse is in some way beneficial to the victim and 'character building'.
Key indicators to spot bullying:
Teachers currently often do not interpret bullying as abusive, but as mutually aggressive interactions between peers, leaving victims unprotected and unsupported.
Teachers use their professional judgement to determine if an incident is a conflict or fight or is indeed evidence of bullying.
And while it is difficult to do this with accuracy on every occasion in which there is an apparent altercation, key indicators such as regular injury to only one party, should be used to at least consider the possibility that abuse is occuring. The abuse of children by their peers, particularly when this is known to teachers, implicates these professionals in terms of child protection mandates.
I definitely agree that regular injury to one party is one form of bullying, although it is possible for both parties to be bullying each other.
I'm not sure what this line means, though:
However, it is evident that peer abuse not only occurs more frequently and therefore has a greater impact than other forms of abuse, it happens more frequently to males which is not the case for other forms of abuse.
If it's saying that peer abuse happens more often to males than other forms of abuse do, then I'm not sure if I can agree. It is hard to find out how true this is, given that bullying and other cases of abuse tend to go under-reported.
If this line is saying that peer abuse happens more often to males than females and people of other genders, then I respectfully disagree (as the research I've read and my own personal experience suggests that males are more likely to experience physical bullying at school, and that females are more likely to experience verbal and emotional bullying).
