Bullying can cause real misery and depression to the extent that it can destroy people’s lives. As a result, bullies are often greatly disliked and punished harshly, as they should be, but it is also important to understand the reasons for bullying so that the bully can be helped too. While we all know that it is important to help the victims of bullying, the bullies need to be helped too, or they will continue to be unhappy and will probably go on and bully others. This is one of the solutions for bullying.
One main cause of bullying is for bullies to try and make they look big in front of other people. They think that if they pick on somebody smaller and weaker than them, then they will look bigger and stronger by comparison. Bullies usually do this for popularity, even though people usually fear them rather than actually like them, by making themselves look ‘good’ in front of friends and potential friends. Differently, but also for popularity, other people also bully others because of peer pressure, perhaps because their friends are bullying someone and they do not want to be cast out from the group for not joining in.
Both of these causes really come down to a lack of self-esteem, and this in itself can have a number of different causes. Many bullies have been bullied themselves, which is why it is important to always help the bullies as well as the victims. They have been belittled by others, so they then have to try and prove that they are better than someone else so that they don’t feel that they are below everyone.
Many bullies also have a very unhappy home life, and then bully for a number of different reasons. This home life could be the cause of a lack of self-esteem, especially if they are abused by their parents, or they could be bullying for other reasons. It could just be that they have never been taught how to behave correctly because they have never had any positive role models, or their parents are nasty to them so they just think that it is completely normal. In other cases, people start bullying because they are acting out and trying to get attention. This is often the case with children and young people who feel ignored by their families and want to get their attention in any way possible.
All in all, there are a numerous different reasons for bullying, and they vary from person to person. It is important to understand a bully’s personal motives though, because only then can we help them and stop them from hurting others.
Bullying is awful. It makes a person feel inadequate, unloved, disrespected, and just plain awful. Some people are bullied so severely that they are compelled to commit suicide. A person could make another person feel so terrible that he/she is drawn to take his/her own lives. So the question still remains. Why? Why do people want to hurt their own friends and peers? The most popular reason for it is the feeling of wanting to be noticed. As sad as it seems, a lot of teenagers come from broken homes where their parents don’t care about them. They are not noticed at home so they want to be noticed at school. The way they go about becoming “noticed” is by getting in trouble so that the teachers will see them. EX. Cheating, bullying, causing a ruckus…etc. The next main reason for bullying is insecurity. The bully is most likely very insecure, either they feel like nobody likes them or they have a hard life at home. Most likely, the bully’s victim is someone they are jealous of, someone that has a happy life. They feel that hurting that person will make them feel better. Bullying is wrong no matter what the reason.
As sad as it may seem, there are people out there who want to hurt others. It is important that no bullying case goes unnoticed, for it could cost a life. We have to do what we can to look for it and stop it when it happens. There is absolutely NO instance where bullying is ok. Leviticus 19:18 says, “Do not take vengeance or bear a grudge on your own people. Instead, love you neighbor as yourself.”
criminologist 