>>There will be no charge this time.<<

Hang on, shouldn't I be charging you?

The following website might help:

http://www.jcu.edu.au/eo/bullying/JCUDEV_010054.html

Thanks for that Foxy. You and Fractelle are wonderful how you google for studies. I don't know what we'd do without your help in defining what a bully is.

I'm sure all you nice people have lots of wonderful stories of how you were bullied. But if any of you had any guts, you'd relate stories of when you were the bully. Or when you supported a bully and found it enjoyable and amusing.

Oh, that's right, you're all pure as driven snow. Bullys are 'those people'. You're the righteous ones.

Foxy thanks. When I read one of the causes I kept thinking of a certain poster, I doubt that anyone could guess who it would be

"Bullies, however, have a distorted sense of how to increase their self-concept, and so engage in anti-social activities. Bullying makes them feel good about themselves and, mistakenly, they believe that engaging in it will make other people see them as powerful."

R0bert

Dear RObert,

I thought you'd get it...

It's all about egotism - usually just a
case of mistaken nonentity!

(If one can't command attention by one's
admirable qualities at least one can be
a nuisance).

R0bert, that's interesting. Reading down I was going to say that my memories of school was that bullying for the boys was really much the same as bullying for the girls, just tending to be more overtly physical. Being a larger school, there were always 4 "classes" within a year group. The shining stars - those that were genuinely talented, usually through sport or social skills, and who everyone else aspired to be liked by. They were never bullied. Then there were the middle class - nice people, did their thing, generally got along with all and sundry, sometimes ended up on the receiving end of bullying, but usually had decent support from their peers. Then there was the "lower class" who tended to be the victims. Often from poor families, with poor social skills, others were "nerds" etc, and had little in the way of social support at school - few friends. The bullies, tended to come from a group of people between the stars and the middle class - they saw themselves as superior, but 1 step away from the top, and would use whatever power they could get to show off that they were better than anyone else.

That sits pretty true with what other posters have said, and they may very well have been poorly treated at home - certainly an inherent nastiness would seem to creep through. As I said though, similar for boys and girls.