Bullying vs. Harassment vs. Assault

[cheeseysouffle]

Bullying is the new fad. It seems that everyone has been bullied or is being bullied. However in reality, they are just being assaulted or harassed. All three are wrong and hurtful, but not all are the same.

Bullying is similar to harassment in the fact that it tends to happened repeatedly. Harassment is defined as "...a course of conduct which annoys, threatens, intimidates, alarms, or puts a person in fear of their safety."

The difference between the two is like the square and the rectangle. Bullying is the square. The added feature to bullying is that there must be and imbalance of power. This can either be something like a title; teacher, administrator, RA; a perceived imbalance of power; sibling; or a larger group of people. This means that bullying is always harassment but not all harassment is bullying.

Assault is defined as, "Intentionally putting another person in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. No intent to cause physical injury needs to exist, and no physical injury needs to result. So defined in tort law and the criminal statutes of some states." This means that if it is not a reoccurring issue, it cannot be harassment or bullying.

[MysteriousFlower]

Yeah, been bullied and harassed. There are laws and rules in place for schools, work-places and other organisations, but reporting the problem can often been difficult such as a child or you are being harassed by your boss.
It takes willpower to stop people getting away with it, unfortunately kids can go through all of school being bullied and employees stay at the same job because they have nowhere else to go.
A lot of the times you haveto have unnecessary consequences for making things right.

[srslyly]

Until feminists ultimately succeed in criminalizing non-repetitive, otherwise non-criminal behavior, replacing criminality with self described victims' feelings:

https://www.ihollaback.org/legal-analysis/

[srslyly]

One down vote? C'mon. They're literally complaining that criminal charges require evidence of intent, and that the law invokes objective standards instead of whatever standard the self described victim makes up.

[cheeseysouffle]

Women are not the only facing street harassment and violence. This take was not meant to be gender specific. I didn't down vote you but you are missing the point.

[srslyly]

Well, the legislation they're promoting will be facially gender neutral, too.

I understood what you said. I thought I told you before, I'm (technically) a lawyer. The definitions you give above are exact common law definitions on which basically the whole English speaking world bases its laws. I was only introducing the concept of advocacy accomplished by means of abusing language to further discussion.

[cheeseysouffle]

okay, well then it seems that I misunderstood you.

[srslyly]

The tort of assault is just like you described. The tort of battery occurs only if there is actual harmful or offensive contact with the other's person. Modern criminal statutes tend to merge the two and break them down by degrees based on the intent, the means used, and the harm.

Harassment usually is going to require continued behavior that nobody could possibly tolerate, or that you asked them to stop. Otherwise, there's nothing to show that they had any ill intent.

I agree that a good definition of bullying as a concept is that of a subset of harassment and/or assault, in which one is trying to dominate another. But I would caution against defining it relative to social status or group. It might imply that a rich, cool person could never be bullied or that a poor loser couldn't be guilty of it.

Don't fall into these social Marxist traps, or you'll end up like those hollaback people, advocating against basic liberty.

[cheeseysouffle]

I never thought to clarify from the money standpoint because I just never thought about it, but you're right. Bullying against the rich also an issue. I see it a lot in college against people who don't have to pay for college. I just tried my best to give a better example of what bullying truly is rather than other people who claimed they have been bullied.

[srslyly]

I think it's equally easy for anybody to bully anybody, no matter either of their circumstances or attributes. It just takes a little meanness.

This leaves the question of what the response to bullying should be. I don't think that bullying which fails to cross the line into one of the other crimes you've mentioned should be punished separately as a crime. (the way "street harassment" advocates want to increase the behavior defined as criminal) But I do think it should be disapproved of socially and subject to violation of community standards in certain types of spaces (for example, schools) even if it isn't a crime.

But you've got to specifically define the broader elements even for these kinds rules. Otherwise you'll end up like @GirlsAskGuys removing my opinions for no reason and leaving others' insults and accusations against me alone.

[srslyly]

I will admit that the admins were reasonably fair in how they handled that one incident today. Tdieseler is alright.

[emmabee11]

I'm always bullied by more than 1 person... people are cowards... what's laughable is they can never face me on their own and when i square up to 1 of them they immediately act frightened around me... lmao well... you shouldn't be ganging up on me... they should know there is only so much prodding i can take till i'm ready to fling them across the room, but of course they don't like it when i square up to them... people that bully these days seem to think they can bully you but you can't defend yourself.

[emmabee11]

They also try to make it look like i'm responsible for my actions and it's my fault for getting angry but no... they are responsible for my actions... nobody else... if they don't want me to square up to them and frighten them they shouldn't bully me and cause angry feelings between us.

[cipher42]

I think just using the dictionary definitions might be not going deep enough. I mean, dictionary definitions are all well and good, but they have to be concise, so they often don't capture all the meaning or nuances of a word. Plus, you need to examine various dictionaries, since precise definitions vary, and some may not be as good. Basically, to really analyze these issues, you need a lot more than just what the dictionary says.

[cheeseysouffle]

I was using the definitions as according to the law. The issue with using words to describe these issues is that they don't convey how emotionally charged they are.

[Pinkbeauty]

I used to be bullied and it was online so I was cyber bullied and I did my best to stickup for myself and I did and then other times I wasn't able to stickup for myself so I had quit and stop going on the websites and games were I used be cyber bullied on

[ThatAsianFellow]

Bullying is a general term... Harrassment is a form of bullying same with assault. You have no clue what you're yapping about.

[LauraMarx]

lol yeah exactly

[ThatAsianFellow]

I'm just being nit picky. But using big words won't make you sound smart. It ironically gives off an opposite effect.

[cheeseysouffle]

I was using the legal definitions of all three. They are all similar but not the same.

[ThatAsianFellow]

Zzzzz... bullying is a broad term... and Harrassment can be a specific form of bullying. And assault can a also be another specific form of bullying. Mind as well add rape in this as well.

Any form of an individual taking advantage by looking down on someone due to an inferiority complex is considered bullying no matter in what form.

That's why when you say Harrassment and assault is not considered bullying then it's contradicting the facts...

[ChaosKilledTheDinos]

I'm still not clear on the difference between bullying and harassment. I don't think this cleared up the grey area enough.

[cheeseysouffle]

With bullying, there has to be an imbalance of power. With harassment, there does not need to be an imbalance of power.

ie: harrasment: During a car ride, you know when the sibling hold the finger up and does the whole "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you" even after you asked them to stop? Then the parent steps in or you punch them in the face (not condoning violence but it works for the example) That's technically harassment. It's a repeated event after you told them to stop. It's not an imbalance of power because the parental/authority figure is the balance.

Bullying is someone cornering you and doing the same "I'm not touching you" routine. However this time they pressure you into feeling helpless. You don't report it, either because you feel it will make it worse or because you don't think the teacher/authority will help you.

[ChaosKilledTheDinos]

Thanks for taking the time to re-explain it

[Anonymous]

"new fad" lmao
bullying has existed within most primate groups.

i am only posting on anon because i am blocked.

[cheeseysouffle]

Bullying is not a fad and it's not what I wrote. Saying you were bullied is a fad.

[Opinion Owner]

>bullying is the new fad
>first sentence
>not what i wrote

[cheeseysouffle]

Out of context "in reality they are just being assaulted or harassed." Thank you for reading the entire article.

[Anonymous]

i was on the side of bullies... it's about power over the weak one. also the feeling of disrespect because he's weak. it's horrible, i regret i never stopped those girls of bullying.

[cheeseysouffle]

As someone who was bullied, I blame the school system more than I blame those who bullied me. For three years I asked them to stand up and help me but they did nothing. What you did was in the past and cannot be changed, but you can change the life a head of you. As long as you accept that and act to be better than the person you were yesterday, there is nothing anyone can hold against you. We all make mistakes.

[Artistic_Soul]

I agree with you take owner, I was bullied and assaulted in school IN FRONT of a classroom full of people and no one did anything. I was to scared to do anything. The teacher either didn't notice or didn't care. In the end it resulted in me getting groped and laughed at. I was bullied and harassed for five years, even my friends abandoned me at one point. I made them "Targets". It only stopped when i had had enough and started running my mouth back at them. I mostly defended my younger sisters... Im the oldest, its my job to protect them is what i felt at the time... when really The schools and parents needed to help stop it. There are differences between being bullied and assault. And harassment. And ANON the take owner is correct, everyone makes mistakes. As long as we learn from them and improve ourselves no one can hold our pasts against us.

[Opinion Owner]

our case: posh popular kids and teachers who were kissing asses of our parents. the reality is rude.
yes, i try to talk to peole when i can, because i was really bitchy in h. s. i know how and why it works from the iside.

[Opinion Owner]

also... girls im sorry!

[LauraMarx]

I have also read a dictionary

[abundantlyrich]

It's happening here in gag.

[Your_boss]

I think you're right.

[Megalodon]

Meh. Who gives a fuck. All a bunch of assholes.

[miserybusiness]

This article was necessary. Good job

[SnowHearth]

I agree with ya