Bullying is something that any child has to face at one point. Nobody is safe from it as it can hit one very suddenly and out of nowhere. Bullying is the use of threat, violent force, or coercion with the aim to intimidate or abuse. In other words, one achieves domination over others through force. Bullying, however, is not only physical abuse but harassment through verbal means, which involve only a promise of physical violence. Bullying is one of the most serious problems at schools and other institutions, where communities of children or teenagers are present. It is important to deal with the problem as effectively as possible, because bullying is very detrimental to its victims in both physical and mental aspects.
There are many reasons why people become bullies. One of the reasons is resentment or envy for another person. That other person may be an unpopular kid at school, who is not willing to socialize or is simply shy. Envy could rise over the fact that the future victim came to school with an item that the bully does not have and cannot afford to have. So, the wish to destroy that item and to make the victim more miserable than the bully is a logical consequence. Some bullies are people with bad character. They can be narcissistic or arrogant. Bullies can be people with short temper and little tolerance for something they find strange, out of place and, hence, inappropriate. Sometimes, people feel the urge to intimidate others, because they have a low self-esteem, so the only way for them to feel better and to feel empowered is to diminish the self-esteem of others.
One of the most widespread weapons of an average bully is insolence. They surprise their victims and give no change for the latter to recuperate and to respond to either a hit, a push, or a public insult. Accomplices of bullies may not take part in the process of bullying directly, but are there to cheer for the bully and to sneer at the victim primarily for the same motives, which drive a bully to commit his negative actions. Sometimes, however, bullies could be engaged in their inappropriate activities in group so as to have more courage. It is not unheard of that a group of people tends to attack one person, who might have been intimidated by a sole person in the first place.
Bystanders is another group of people, who can either contribute to the bullying process or make it stop. Bullies often have to rely on the illusion that the majority silently agrees with the righteousness of their actions against victims. If the surrounding people take no heed of bullying, the culture can exist for a very long time within a given society.
Victims according to many researches are likely to lack social skills, fear interaction with other people, and often have negative thoughts, not to mention difficulties with solving problems and issues. Their main problem is inability to retaliate and to stand up for themselves. Sometimes, they may be much stronger than the bullies and accomplices put together, but due to intimidation cannot react against the oppression properly.
The issue has to be dealt with as the effect of bullying are detrimental to both sides: bullies become even more self-assured and delusional regarding their true power and significance within the society while the victims can turn into bullies themselves inflicting damage on even weaker people or fall into depression. Dealing with bullying is difficult due to the inability of many victims to admit the problem and unwillingness of bullies to confess. Research already completed on the topic should be used to influence this widespread plague positively so as to mitigate its often appearance and negative influence.