CE Blog Post 3

Should Bullying Be A Crime?

            Many students and people are being bullied in today's society. It is not always physical bullying, and now because of cyber space people can be bullied virtually. Now the question is "Should Bullying Be A Crime?" I'm going to talk bullying (long term effects and short term effects of the victim and bully), society's answer and about my opinion to the question.

            Bullying is very serious in our society today. Some of the short term effects for the victim are that he or she will have trouble sleeping, depression, and have anxiety to attend school. They have troubles sleeping because they have bad dreams also called nightmares. Depression is another thing and they will have it in extreme case, too. They will be scared to go to school because they are intimidated or threatened of the bully. Some short term effects for the bully themselves are hard time making friends, more likely to get involved in harmful activities, and usually more likely to have an alcohol and substance abuse. They will have a hard time making friends because they scare most of the students. They will more likely get in involved in harmful activities such as, stealing, vandalizing property, and getting into physical fight and injuring themselves. They are more likely to have an alcohol and substance abuse because they think they have no other way to solve their problem other than drinking. In fact drinking does not help solve your problem it just makes you forget why they are feeling that way or the problem.  

            Some of the long term affects for the victim are alcohol and substance abuse, self-destruction, and depression unless they are given immediate help the victim, they should have limited long term effects. They abuse alcohol and substances (drugs) because they want to forget the problem when in fact the problem is still there. They will be in a self-destruction mode because they will put themselves down and just totally feel down. The victim can be so depressed that they commit suicide. Some long term effects for the bully is that he or she will have a criminal record, be dependent on alcohol and feel guilt if the person they bullied committed suicide (my opinion). The bully will have a criminal record because their aggressive behaviors grow. They will be dependent on alcohol because they abused it when they were younger. My opinion was that the bully will feel guilt and that was because let's say that person was the bully's best friend before the bully was that bully.  

            I think bullying should be a crime because bullying is part of harassment and abuse. And harassment and abuse is a crime. What if someone commits suicide because of someone bullying him/her then isn't that the same thing as murder? Bullying someone until the point where the victim commits suicide is no better than murder. Actually it is the same thing as murder. So bullying should be a crime. Don't you agree with me?

Bibliography

"Consequences of Bullying."  Oracle  June 7th 2012
http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00117/bullyingconsequences.html

John W Sheridan  "Short and Long Term Effects of Bullying - The Victim & the Bully." 
June 7th 2012 
< http://ezinearticles.com/?Short-and-Long-Term-Effects-of-Bullying---The-Victim-and-the-Bully&id=4615335 >

Rita Berhel  "The Long-Term Effects of Bullying on the Victim, the Bully, and the Bystander."  June 7th 2012 http://theattachedfamily.com/membersonly/?p=171

"Family Violence Initiative" June 7th 2012
< http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/pi/fv-vf/pub/har/har.html>