Direct bullying may also be verbal in nature, such as teasing, saying hurtful things, and using unpleasant nicknames directly to the person.
Targets of bullying in school are often pupils who are considered different by their peers to begin with.
In 2002, a report released by the U.S. Secret Service concluded that bullying played a significant role in many school shootings and that efforts should be made to eliminate bullying behavior.
First, bullying represents a chronic pattern of abuse over time, not individual or rare episodes.
When victims are weaker, physically or intellectually, responding in kind leads only to defeat which encourages further bullying rather than deterring it.
Bullying can cause loneliness, depression, anxiety, lead to low self-esteem and increased susceptibility to illness.
Bullying can occur in any setting where human beings interact with each other.
What would be classified as bullying behavior has commonly taken place in military environments, particularly at boot camp.
Schools can be places where students learn to ‘de-code’ all the other factors that promote bullying outside the school context, instead of being places where power-dominant human relations are ‘re-learned’ and reproduced.
Bullying usually is characterized by direct or overt behavior, observable actions against an individual or group.
Second, bullying is not necessarily one-on-one harassment; it may be carried out by a group on a single individual.
Victims of bullying can suffer from long term emotional and behavioral problems.
Political bullying by one country of another can be a form of Jingoism—"extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy.
Soldiers expected to risk their lives should, according to this view, develop strength of body and spirit to accept bullying.
Bullying behaviors may be couched in humiliation and hazing rites or protocols framed as being in the best interests of employee development and coaching.
A different approach puts the responsibility to change on all those involved, including the individual who bullied, and the bystander—the other members of the community within which bullying has occurred.
By removing the fundamental basis of the bully/target relationship, the bullying ends.
Cyber-bullying is bullying that involves the use of digital technology in communication: "The intentional and repeated harm of others through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices.
Bullying can be divided into two categories: Direct bullying, and indirect bullying.
Bullying is the act of intentionally causing harm to others, through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods such as spreading rumors.
Some of the children who perpetrated school shootings have claimed that they were victims of bullying and that they resorted to violence only after the school administration repeatedly failed to intervene.
The traditional response to bullying, often promoted by adults to whom victims turn, is to respond in kind—to confront the violence of the bully with violence in return.
Indirect bullying is characterized by threatening the victim into social isolation.
Bullying in school may consist of a group of students taking advantage of, or isolating, one student and gaining the loyalty of bystanders who want to avoid becoming the next victim.
Bullying can exist between social groups, social classes, and even between nations.
Workplace bullying may involve an employee’s immediate supervisor, manager, or boss alone or in conjunction with other employees.
A second common element in bullying behavior is a perceived imbalance of power, which allows one individual, or group, to victimize another.
Cyberbullying can happen through the use of e-mail, cell phone text (SMS) and multimedia messages (MMS), instant messaging (IM), defamatory Web logs (Blogs), personal Web sites, and online personal polling sites.
A comprehensive intervention approach requires consensus among all members of the community regarding behaviors considered bullying.
Bullying may involve physical actions such as hitting, kicking, or hair pulling, or it may be verbal in nature, involving the use of hurtful nicknames, telling lies, or making fun of the victim.
Bullying is an act of repeated aggressive behavior in order to intentionally hurt another person, physically or mentally.
Direct bullying involves overt behaviors directed against another individual, observable by others.
Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others.
The problem of bullying can be seen not as an individual character flaw but rather as a societal problem.