Anti-Bullying Policies-Have we got it wrong?
Empowering Bullied Victims!

Nowadays there is no school that doesn’t have an anti-bullying policy, which clearly states it will not condole, in any way, such behaviour.

But, have these anti-bullying policies been effective, has it actually worked?

Has there been a real tangible benefit to the bullied victim?

The article is looking at bullying from a fresh angle, when we look over man’s history and the life of any individual we find that bullying has existed for a long time and the only thing new is the term bullying.

Defining Bullying

Bullying is an act of repeated aggressive behaviour in order to intentionally hurt another person, physically or mentally. Bullying is characterized by an individual behaving in a certain way to gain power over another person.[1]

Norwegian researcher Dan Olweus defines bullying as when a person is "exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons." He defines negative action as "when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, through words or in other ways".[2]

If we look this over, we find that aggressive behaviour, in order to intentionally hurt another, can be found at work, at a party or at a bus stop. It happens to a person who is 3 and it happens to a person who is 76. A foreman can be considered by his junior to behave as a bully and some people will go as far as to say this of the taxman or the government officials.

So, we are looking at something that is rampant in our society, but clearly starts at an early age. What about brother and sisters? – Surely, we can see some exhibiting such aggressive behaviour with intent to hurt or reduce another family member’s demeanour. It clearly is not age or location bound.

Our solution, whether in schools or workplace, has been to make rules or laws to the affect that it is a bad behaviour and we are not condoning it. Anyone found will be penalised according to our rules and laws. Our solutions boil down to penalising the perpetrator. This sounds great in theory but how do we find the perpetrator?

And most importantly how do we know that we have not gotten mixed up in a feud between two people. A group, kids, young and old can argue and neither is a bully. This is one of the reasons why today’s Anti-bullying policies have most likely failed, as it isn’t workable in the real world. The mere fact of passing a law or making a school policy, as right as it is, doesn’t necessarily change the situation. Of course it is better to have such a policy or is it?

Empowering the bullied victim!

Let’s take a new look at this age-old problem and this is what RaiseAchild has done, instead of focusing on weeding out the bullies which has a very high chance of getting it wrong, we focus on empowering the victims. Enabling the victim to deal with his own lack of confidence, his difficulties to confront the bully is one key strategy but there is another aspect worth to pursue and that is the group.

Getting a group spirit going in your class, strengthening the interest and care in each other reduces the power of bullies. A bully works on singling out, on lying about people to others behind the victims back, he can’t face a group. He will hide in a group of people to be undiscovered. There are various communication and group exercises that can be done to bring a groups élan up and get them to unite.

Furthermore, a strong group with simple but clear precepts can and does handle bullies amongst themselves far better than any teacher or other external party can do. Once this life skill has been learned and experienced, it will continue to assist them throughout their life.

Contact us for more information on how to empower the bullied victims.  

[1] Besag, V. E. (1989) Bullies and Victims in Schools. Milton Keynes, England: Open University Press
[2]Olweus, D