Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Bullying in schools: the research background
- 2 Understanding schools as systems
- 3 Bullying in groups: ostracism and scapegoating
- 4 Developing an integrated, systemic model of school bullying
- 5 Building personal bodies of knowledge to support research and practice
- 6 Building a public body of knowledge to support research and practice
- 7 Conclusion
- References
- Index
3 - Bullying in groups: ostracism and scapegoating
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Bullying in schools: the research background
- 2 Understanding schools as systems
- 3 Bullying in groups: ostracism and scapegoating
- 4 Developing an integrated, systemic model of school bullying
- 5 Building personal bodies of knowledge to support research and practice
- 6 Building a public body of knowledge to support research and practice
- 7 Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
Bullying that involves a single bully and a single victim may account for only 27.3 per cent of bullying (Smith and Shu, 2000). Therefore the majority of bullying probably occurs in the context of a group. Indeed, Salmivalli et al. (1996a) have established that most children in a class seem to adopt a specific role in relation to bullying when it occurs. However, explanations of why bullying occurs in groups are more limited. It is likely that several different processes have the potential to generate such behaviour. Theoretical explanations are urgently needed to give further direction and shape to anti-bullying interventions.
Chapter 1 highlighted stigmatisation as one possible source of social aggression in groups. This chapter discusses ostracism and scapegoating as two further causes. The possibility that ostracism and scapegoating may be causal in some cases of bullying became apparent during the analysis of a qualitative, retrospective study with adults who were deaf. This led to a review of the literature in relation to these concepts. It was possible to identify two sets of behaviour and contextual indicators that might be observed if ostracism or scapegoating were at work in a group context. The data from the retrospective study was revisited to see whether there was any evidence of the two processes based on these indicators. Given the retrospective nature of the data, the results could not be said to be conclusive.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Rethinking School BullyingTowards an Integrated Model, pp. 80 - 117Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011