Traditional Bullying

Traditional Bullying happens in person and involves 2 actors: the bully and the victim. 
In the 2008-2009 school year, 7,066,000 students ages 12-18 were bullied at school. This is roughly 28% of all students [7].
Traditional bullying utilizes aggression through physical and verbal threats or actions to a victim who cannot defend themselves [19].

There are 3 types/categories of traditional bullying:
1. Physical Bullying: physical actions towards the victim. This includes:
  • Hitting
  • Kicking 
  • Pushing/Shoving
  • Wrestling
  • Fighting
  • Tripping

2. Harassment Bullying: verbal actions used to frighten or "break down" the victim. This includes:
  • Taunting
  • Name Calling
  • Threats

3. Relational Bullying: Bullying that involves breaking the victims relationships with others. This includes: 
  • Negatively effecting the social status of a victim
  • Damaging friendships 
  • Spreading Rumors 

Males typically physical bully someone while females tend to lean more towards the relational bullying. 

Popular bullying sites include:
  • School Bus
  • Cafeteria
  • Playground 

Most places where children are bullied happens where there is a large group of students and where supervision is limited [19]. 


In order for actions to be considered bullying, they must be:
  • Psychical or verbal threats or actions aimed at another 
  • Juvenile bully and victim (under the age of 18)
  • Intent to cause harm or distress
  • Repeated 
  • Imbalance of power and strength between victim and bully [19]


Bullying can have detrimental impacts on the victim with extreme cases leading to suicide [13]. Teachers and school officials have an obligation to inform officials if a serious criminal offense is committed. 
Most bullying crimes are prosecuted as:
  1. Negligence- failure to take care of someone who needed help- 3rd (outside) parties 
  2. Breach of statutory duty
  3. Assault- criminal offense [13]

Cyber Bullying 

In the National Crime Victimization Survey done over the 2008-2009 school year, 1,521,000 students ages 12-18 reported being cyber bullied. This is roughly 6%. [7]

Cyber Bullying is becoming a problem in schools and government as technology advances [6]. Close to 90% of youth (12-17) are on the internet daily. [19] With the internet, cyber bullies can reach a large number of victims and they do not realize the threat of punishment. 

Bullying online can harass, threaten, and infringe on a victims personal life not only in the schools but in the comfort of their own home. Cyber bullying can fall under two categories: Synchronic and Asynchronic. 
Synchronic  is "live" bullying. This type of bullying is instant, it happens when both the offender and victim are online at the same time. Synchronic bullying utilizes:
  • Chat Rooms
  • IM's
  • Cell Phones
  • Online Games [4]

Asynchronic is when the bullying is delayed and the content is posted on the web permanently. Asynchronic bullying utilizes:
  • Youtube
  • Facebook
  • Social Networking Sites [4]


Cyber Bullying can take on 2 forms: Direct and Indirect.

Direct Cyber Bullying is similar to Synchronic. Direct cyber bullying consists of messages sent from the bully to the victim. 
Indirect Cyber Bullying is similar to Asynchronic. Indirect cyber bullying consists of the bully using the help of others to attack the victim [19].

Examples of Cyber Bullying include:
  • Mean/Nasty text messages, instant messages, emails
  • Posting mean messages/pictures/videos
  • Posting rumors or lies
  • Using someones username without their permission to post rumors or lies [1]

There have been 8 terms coined describe the different types of cyber bullying. These terms are:

  • Flaming: arguments that take place online. Most use aggressive language
  • Harassment: the sending of insulting or unwanted messages. This must happen repeatedly 
  • Denigration: gossip or rumors online used to damage someone's reputation or friendships
  • Impersonation: pretending to be someone else 
  • Outing: the act of posting someone's secrets or private information online without obtaining consent 
  • Trickery: convincing someone to share their secrets or information then posting it without their consent 
  • Exclusion: the act of intentionally excluding someone from a group 
  • Cyber Stalking: harassing someone repeatedly or sending them treats in order to create fear [17]