Bullying should be a criminal offense, on the level of rape

[DigitalFudge]

Title says it all.


This is starting to get ridiculous.


Easy as hell to enforce/prove.

Plus you can knock out even more assholes that get summoned to court when they deny they heard their "Buddy" call johnny a fag and brake his arm.


Thank God I don't run anything, there would be so many 14 year olds on probation, the officers wouldn't know what to do with themselves.

 

[jdcnow]

Agreed both of you. When will we finally start calling a spade a spade, and start calling bullying the form of child abuse - yeah, I said it - child abuse it really and truly is. And the adults (parents and teachers) who let this sort of thing go on unchecked, throw their ass in jail, too. Maybe if we started cracking down more, more people would start wising up, and paying attention.

 

[Sam Blum]

Having been bullied to an extraordinary degree (including physical sexual abuse by class-mates in year seven) and having been raped at 17, I would not think that bullying of the verbal, cyber or non-sexual kinds of physical violence are the same thing as rape. Both bullying and rape were completely life altering and enormously damaging, and both can make intimacy very difficult, but rape takes things to a level for most survivors with whom I've spoken (and there are a lot I've met incidentally/casually) taht bullying never attained. There is something so utterly pervasive and soul destroying in a rape that comes in such a tight, heavy, leaden fist punching into your spirit and mind that the chronic pain and even acute episodes of other kinds of abuse pale.

This is not to suggest that non-rape bullying doesn't also kill - of course it does. They are, however, not the same degree of violence. And yesss, I have had to literally deal with bullying constantly since age six until finishing high-school with endless fights, metal locker doors slamming onto my head and neck, flushings, gang bangs (in the old fashioned sense), torture, ostracisation, neglect and even victimisation (including being kicked) by teachers, being prevented from getting home until after hours of delay on a daily basis, being chased by knife weilding students on a number of occasions, et cetera (and this was known as a good school!). Rape is a different level. In my experience.

 

[MercuryJones]

What gets called bullying IS a criminal offense.... if you do it to an adult.

It's stunning that the same actions that would result in lawsuits or criminal charges, if adults did it to other adults, is treated as a non-issue when kids do it to other kids.

Worse still, kids don't have the same resources, coping mechanisms or even choices that adults have. They are more vulnerable, but treated with less regard.

 

[braex27]

Bullying as a criminal offense should be tied to the consequence for the victim - if the victim resorts to self-harm then the punishment of the criminal offense of bullying should be analogous to "Assault" or "Grievous Bodily Harm"... where it results in suicide, it should carry the stigma and penalty associated with "Manslaughter".

Bullies who are deliberate and persistent act with reckless disregard for the wellbeing of their victims. They should be punished as any other criminal recklessly disregarding the impact of their actions on the victims.

 

[walkingonsnow]

This can be abused, you could take the smallest joke/jibe and take it out of context to accuse someone of bullying you.

 

[braex27]

This can be abused, you could take the smallest joke/jibe and take it out of context to accuse someone of bullying you.

A criminal offence is prosecuted and (one would hope) the relevant Attorney-General, or District Attorney or Public Prosecutor should be able to objectively determine whether or not to pursue and prosecute individual cases of criminal bullying. It's a matter of economics, really. The civil service doesn't have the resources to prosecute every complaint made.

This, of course, does not prevent the victim taking civil action for an intervention/restraining order, or damages for emotional distress...etc. The civil suit of "wrongful death" is also available but I am not sure it has been tested in a case of suicide as a result of bullying or similar behaviour.

 

[MercuryJones]

This can be abused, you could take the smallest joke/jibe and take it out of context to accuse someone of bullying you.

There are laws against sexual harassment in the workplace; there are laws against stalking. Would you propose that these laws shouldn't exist because they might be abused?

For that matter, would you say there shouldn't be laws against rape because it can be - and has been - abused?

 

[Kulindahr]

Agreed both of you. When will we finally start calling a spade a spade, and start calling bullying the form of child abuse - yeah, I said it - child abuse it really and truly is. And the adults (parents and teachers) who let this sort of thing go on unchecked, throw their ass in jail, too. Maybe if we started cracking down more, more people would start wising up, and paying attention.

Absolutely, as someone on the local FOX channel said recently: just because it's done by children doesn't make it not child abuse.

And that's the place to list it; rape is a much higher level. If it's based on sexuality in any way, they could tell the kids doing it they could be charged with a sex offense and listed for life.... Maybe that would scare them [STRIKE]straight[/STRIKE] civilized.

 

[MTLDude]

For me, not only bullying should be considered a criminal offence, but a crime against humanity. I was the victim of bullying when I was is high-school, not because I was gay (nobody "knew" at the time, not even me) but because I was obese (still is), did not like to practice sport (still don't) and because I liked classical music (still do)... I cannot imagine what my life would have been if my sexual orientation would have entered the equation... Sexual identity is a very big part of the humanity of a person, and demeaning it like it happen so often in case of gay-bullying is undermining the foundations of a person(as bullying for any other reason, BTW). That is why I think that bullying should be consider a crime against humanity...

@ Sam Blum: I also think that rape should be considered as crime against humanity. You said that bullying and rape are not the same degree of violence; respectfully, I disagree... it's the same degree of violence, just not aim at the same place... If you permit me an analogy (I apologize in advance, it's a crude one): a bomb dropped at a house from a plane will be just as effective as a bomb planted in the basement to destroy said house... In the end, you'll end up with a pile of debris...