Facts and Figures

 

A definition of Bullying is "unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance" (Stopbullying.gov, n.d.).

In 2009, a nationwide survey revealed that approximately 20% of high school students reported they were bullied in school within the past 12 months. In 2007, four percent of secondary aged students (middle and high school) said they were victims of being cyber-bullied (CDC, 2011).

In a recent survey, a larger percentage of middle school students (26.8%) than high school students (15.6%) were categorized as victims of bullying.  Males are typically more going to be the bully with 9.9% in middle school and 12.1 % in high school.  Females can also be bullies with 5 % in middle school and 4.8% in middle school.  On the victim side, female have a higher percentage with almost 30% in middle school and near 18% in high school compared to males (24% and 13.3 % respectively) (CDC, 2011).

In a frightening discovery, comparing students who were neither bullies nor bullying victims, both middle and high school bully-victims were more than three times as likely to report seriously considering suicide (24.9% versus 4.5% for middle school; 22.5% versus 6.2% for high school), intentionally injuring themselves (40.9% versus 8.4% for middle school; 28.5% versus 8.6% for high school), being physically hurt by a family member (23.2% versus 5.1% for middle school; 20.4% versus 4.7% for high school), and witnessing violence in their family (22.8% versus 6.6% for middle school; 30.6% versus 7.2% for high school) (CDC, 2011).

Substance and alcohol use is very high for both bullies and bully-victims.  In middle schools bullies use was at 32.7 % versus 22.7 of victims, with figures climbing in high school 63.2% (bullies) and 56.3% (victims).  In terms of drugs use, 32% of middle school bullies used versus nearly 20% for victims.  In high school, figures jump again with 47.2% bully drug use versus 41% for victims (CDC, 2011).

According to the National Crime Victimization Statistics bullying behavior is linked with criminal victimization and offending behavior.  Approximately 4 % of students 12-18 were a victim of a crime on school grounds.  39.8 percent of student crime victims stated that gangs are present at their respective school.  A more pressing figure is 53.2%of student victims of crime reported that drugs were available at school (National Center of Educational Statistics, 2011).  This is showing a strong relation that drugs and gangs tend to have influence on crime in schools.