Bullying and Its Effect on Our American Society

While doing research on bullying in our American society, I have found numerous amounts of authors, doctors, professionals, perpetrator, victims, and survivors who have published books, articles, and blogs about bullying and its effects on the American society. Bullying is defined as a disease than can be physical or verbal that can take place in person behind someone’s back and cyber. These people often talk about bullying as a harmful force in America. My Goal in this research paper is to identify the American society due to bullying with statistics and information.

To achieve this goal I have divided my research paper into four main sections. In the first section, I have provided information on bullying and its effect. In the second section I will discuss the American culture. In the third section I have provided information from professional and other in such manner. The fourth section will be all about the statistic that bullying has caused. I end my paper with a question to society what can we do for our society as a whole? With this fourth section I will explain the importance of coming together and stopping this epidemic. I have also included an appendix before the cited work that contains images of the relevant topic. But as an introduction I will give you the origin of the word bully or bullying.

ORIGIN CONTEXT
Bullying or bully is not a young word; actually the word has never changed however the meaning of the word has changed dramatically. The word bullying was first discovered in literature in the 1500s, being referred to a sweetheart. Then after that the word evolved into a term use towards males as a good friend. The last time the meaning changed which was about 150 years after the second change the meaning has remained, this time it was the progression towards modern understanding and terrorizing the weak and old. What Is Bullying and It’s Effect?

What exactly is bullying? Is bullying name calling in a court yard full of first graders, is it tarnishing someone’s life over social media sites, or is it the main reason in the death of teenagers in America. Yes indeed these are all true, the definition of bullying is, intentional aggressive behavior. Two main reasons people are bullied is because appearance and social status however the list is endless. We all seen the effect of bullying but little do you realize the butterfly affect (a small change somewhere will affect something so much greater). We as human little do we know, we can all be affected by bullying. The effects are simple but just as fetal. With the recent and unfortunate suicides committed primarily by LGBT 8 Bullying affects millions of student and also adults.

Now let’s make acknowledgment of the domino effect (the domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then causes another similar change). Millions of students are being bullied in school every day. The students who are bullied the pattern usefully start by skipping classes, then missing school, and eventually drop out. Then kids who bully others are more likely to get into fights, drop out school and have criminal convictions and drop out of school. Where will this guide America’s society more people without a high school diploma, without a high school diploma you will have into a categories that is being carried by government assistant programs such as food stamps, Medicare, section 8, and etc. Which lead the rest of the population to suffer with higher taxes, to help pay for the government assistance programs? The American Culture

Let’s begin with the 1980’s; the generation of status seekers. The eighties were a decade where style reigned supreme, and few artists had as much style as Madonna. The computing revolution of the 1980s began with the introduction of the Apple II series. The very well known, First Lady Nancy Reagan’s message to “Just Say No” to drugs, followed by the sexual revolution was rocked by the spread of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. The 90’s were all about hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts, and mega-mergers spawned a new breed of billionaire such as: Donald Trump and Ivan Boesky who became the rich and famous. 1990s was truly the electronic age. We would not have been able to publish this decade’s web site if it weren’t for the Internet. The World Wide Web was born in 1992, changing the way we communicate (email), spend our money (online gambling, stores), and do business (e-commerce) this brought a new form of bullying (cyber bullying). However the 90’s also brought cell phones and the Columbine High School shooting the worst of 7 school shootings that occurred in 1999, this tragedy occurred when two students in Littleton, CO, brought weapons to school and killed 12 students and wounded many others before killing themselves; the event led to changes in gun control, school safety measures, and continuing debates about media portrayals of violence Professional Information

A mixed-methods research design carried out in Nevada, in which 118 middle school principals were surveyed about cyber bullying, identified components of a successful preventative program. Of those surveyed, 66 responded and 10 agreed to participate in a one-on-one interview. From these ten, three were selected and questioned intensively about cyber bullying and preventative strategies within their school as well as about their thoughts on the issue in general. Based on the interview results, the following six components were identified as essential elements to a preventative cyber bullying program: “the importance of a reporting procedure; curriculum integration; student-centered productions through mediums such as Broadcast Journalism; a focus on prevention rather than solely on punishment; the importance of punishment as a part of an effective policy; and keeping up with changes in technology” (Wiseman, 2011). In his “General Strain Theory,” sociologist Robert Agnew hypothesized that the strain and stress exerted on an individual as a result of bullying “can manifest itself in problematic emotions that lead to deviant behavior,” possibly leading to delinquency (Agnew, 2006, pp. 659-660). This theory stresses the vicious cycle that many teens may go through while being victimized. The cyclical repercussions of this process are particularly alarming if it leads a victim to antisocial behaviors when they try to find an outlet for their emotions.

In 2001, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reported that “60 percent of males who were bullies in grades 6 through 9 were convicted of at least one crime as adults, compared with 23 percent who did not bully; 35 to 40 percent of these former bullies had three or more convictions by the age of 24, compared with 10 percent of those who did not bully” (Ericson, 2001). Offenders are likely to utilize bullying tactics as an outlet for other insecurities or problems in their lives. This utilization of bullying as a coping mechanism contributes to the cyclical nature that the process evidently has on victims and offenders

The Statistics of Bullying
According to their results, cyber bullying victimization rates have varied in the past few years, ranging between 18.8 percent in May 2007 and 28.7 percent in Nov. 2009 with a mean of 27.32 percent based on 7 different studies from May 2007-Feb. 2010. Cyber bullying offending rates have varied in a broader spectrum than victimization rates, ranging between 20.1 percent in June 2004 and 11.5 percent in Nov. 2009 with a mean of 16.76 percent based on 7 different studies from June 2004 to February 2010 (Hinduja & Patchin, 2010g, p. 1). Several specific types of victimization and cyber bullying were discovered through a survey taken in 2010.

The survey discovered that the highest concentration of victimizations and cyber bullying offenses occurred in the following areas respectively: mean or hurtful comments posted online (14.3%, 8.8%), rumors online (13.3%, 6.8%), threats through a cell phone text message (8.4%, 5.4%) (Hinduja & Patchin, 2010e, p. 1). Another important factor that Hinduja and Patchin brought to light was what type of technology a teen primarily uses. According to a 2010 study, which asked teens what role technology played in their daily lives, cell phones were used the most (83%), followed by the Internet for school work (50.8%), and then Facebook (50.1%) (Hinduja & Patchin, 2010h, p. 1). These also points to cell phones and the Internet as the two primary mediums used for cyber bullying.

Bibliography

Agnew, R. (2006). Pressured into crime: an overview of general strain theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
.Ericson, N. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Program. (2001). Addressing Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2010g). Lifetime cyber bullying victimization rates. Cyber bullying Research Center. Retrieved from Cyber bullying Research Center Website: http://www.cyberbullying.us/2010_charts/ cyberbullying_victimization_meta_chart.jpg

Wiseman, B. (2011). Cyber bullying in schools: A research study on school policies and procedures. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Retrieved from EBSCOhost.