Factors that cause students to become bullies Essay Example
A learning institution is a place where tranquility has to reign. It is expected to be a haven of emotional, physical and mental peace. Contrary to this, bullying has been a verb that has engraved itself in the definition of most schools. Bullying refers to using one’s ‘superiority’ to torment others. Much has been done to curb the vice but bullying has taken different routes making it close to impossible to savage the situations associated with it.
Bullying occurs in different ways. It can verbal, physical or even electronic form of bullying. Verbal occurs when a bully attacks the victim orally through abusive words. The victim usually feels embarrassed and demeaned in front of other and finds it hard to fight back. The perpetrator appears to be powerful and more dominant.
Physical bullying is the most common form. It encompasses violent act
...ions done against the victim. The victim is deemed as the weaker figure while the bully is physically stronger and can easily beat up the victim without a fight-back (Rigby 75). The innocent is subjected to bodily torture. The common tell-tale signs include bruises and swollen body parts.
Electronic or internet bullying occurs mostly on social media. It’s more prevalent on social media platforms. The student bully picks on social media platforms of the casualty and taints his or her social media image. It’s a modern form of bullying due to the easy access of internet among students. It lacks empathy hence the prevalence. There are various factors contributing to bullying. They are vastly discussed below:
Conflicting family background; Statistics show that most perpetrators of bullying are more likely to come from a conflicting family. They feel n
affection from home and towards others. Mostly, they feel neglected and turn their aggression on others by tormenting them at school (Smith, Perple & Rigby 31). Bullies lack an open communication to their parents or guardians which would help him/her share out about his/her problems. It may be owing to the fact that the parent(s) is an alcoholic or too busy to have a chit-chat with the kid. Therefore the kid has to deal with his problems the hard way by inflicting torment on others.
Fame is a factor that triggers bullying. Most culprits seek popularity among their peers. To achieve this, they harass the lesser in the school. They aim at dominating others and be renowned. They execute humiliation on the weaker individuals. While doing all the torture, they appear confident on their actions just to feel prestigious and in command among their fellow peers.
Poverty to a greater extent leads to bullying. How? Based on statistics, most bullies come from a poorer family compared to that of the victims. The victims may be owning expensive chattels like watches, backpack, or even shoes. They perform the vice to get what they cannot afford. They humiliate the sufferers, who is inadvertently forced to give up their accouterments.
Drug and substance abuse; Yes, it is among the core-factors leading to harassment of others. Students can easily access drugs in the modern society. Figures show that 82 percent of students who abuse drugs anonymously, are the known school bullies. The drugs cannabis and alcohol abuse gives the bully a false sense of superiority. This is most common in boys than in girls (Olweus 103). He feels no empathy towards the
victim. The culprit has no fears of the repercussions of his actions; he may cause total trauma on the victim. They may physically attack the victim or verbally hence lowering their self-esteem. The culprit becomes a bully only after using the drug in question but appears silent when sober.
Dysfunctional school administration largely causes bullying. Most bullies’ activities are spreading due to the fact that most administrators remain adamant even after receiving information about bullies in the school. Statistics prove that 70 percent of students have a notion that school administrators brush off when the students report cases bullies in the school. As a result only 58 percent of victims report to the teachers when harassed. Consequently, this has encouraged the perpetrators of bullying to continue with their wicked acts without being punished.
Narcissism has led to increased cases of bullying. Researches show that 98 percent of bullies are narcissists. They have an over-stated esteem about themselves. Medically, this is considered to be a mental disorders. The culprit has an exaggerated feeling of being attractive to the others. With this feeling of being ‘the say’ they tend to end up tormenting others whom he sees as less attractive than him. The target in such a case is perceived to be a dynamic loser.
Presence of an audience in most cases has led to the rise in the vice. One may ask how? It is undebatable that most culprits seek attention from the peers and the audience around by the time the target is being attacked. In most cases, the audience may go to the extreme of cheering the humiliation. This inadvertently encourages the perpetrator to unquestionably continue with
the sheer torture onto the victim. A times, the audience fails to take action despite the constant shout for help by the underdog. Oh no! This worsen when some individuals walk away leaving the loser helpless. This portrays a picture of a bully being an individual who has conquered one and conquered all.
Conclusively, bullying debauchery should be fought against by all and sundry. Its long-term and short-term consequences are known by many: It leads to lowering of self-esteem, trauma, depression, drug and substance abuse, academic failures and can turn fatal when the target commits suicides whereby some victims succumb during the torture. All these give us a reason to condone and condemn this wrong with the grandest terms possible. It should be controlled as early as it is noted to avoid future regrets that are always attached to this form of transgression.
Works Cited
- Olweus, D. ‘what we know what we don’t know’ Bullying at school. Oxford, 2001 pp. 103-107
Rigby, K. Bullying in School. Melbourne, 1996 pp 71-82 - Smith, P., Perple, D., Rigby, K. ‘Effects of bullying’ Bullying in School and Its Environment.
- Cambridge University Press 2004 pp 30-35
