Bullying Should be a Criminal Offense Bullying.

Research indicates that more than half of young people have been bullied, and one in ten have been bullied severely. This is shocking. Bullying is a serious issue, and the longer it is left to be dealt with the more lives are lost a child commits suicide because of bullying every three weeks. Is it fair for the government to stand aside and let these tragedies unfold, or should they be doing something to prevent it? I think that there are many reasons to suggest that bullying should be made a criminal offence. Firstly, bullying can severely affect the physical and emotional well-being of victims. Bullying is an act of repeated aggressive behaviour in order to intentionally hurt another person, physically or mentally. It can make victims feel anxious or depressed, suffer from physiological effects like headaches, shaking and nausea, and have a lower performance at school or work. Referring to being bullied at school, Miley Cyrus said that she was friendless, lonely and miserable. However, what people may not realise is that bullying may have lifelong effects, long after the bullying has ceased. Victims can find it harder to connect with people, fear new situations, become withdrawn and often have extremely low self-esteem for the rest of their lives. Do you think its fair that someone has the power to have such a strong effect on a person? Furthermore, bullying is detrimental to the bully as well as the victim. Once the habit of bullying is enforced into someone, they often never stop; people who bully as children are more likely to bully in later life. Making bullying a criminal offence becomes even more obvious when you consider that young bullies are highly prone to becoming criminals later in life. Maybe, if their behaviour were better controlled when they were younger, it would make them realise where to draw the line in their actions. Also, evidence indicates that making bullying unlawful would reduce the numbers strongly. Take racism for example. If someone were bullied because of their race, they would be protected, protected by the Race Relations Act which could lead to the bullys imprisonment. After the act was passed in 1976, racism fell dramatically. There is no reason not to suggest that the same may happen to bullying. Finally, some US states already have laws against bullying. Massachusetts and New York both have anti-bullying legislation. Massachusetts in particular was inspired by the sad suicide of Phoebe Prince, a 15 year old girl who was bullied at school. Her final week at school is heart-breaking to hear. On the 12th January, she told friends that she was scared and wanted to go home. On the 13 th January, she asked friends to surround her as she walked into the canteen, and said that school had been close to intolerable lately. On the 14th January, she was yelled at and stalked as she walked around the school, and as she walked home, crying, a bully threw a can out of a car at her. It was the last straw. Phoebes twelve year old sister came home from school to find Phoebe hanging from the stairs, dead. Is it fair, is it right, is it anything other than appalling to continue to let this happen? In conclusion, I believe that bullying should be made a criminal offence. The Law is enforced to set a standard of behaviour, and bullying, to me, is an immoral, act that should not be

acceptable in our society. To anyone who says that bullying is not serious enough to be made unlawful, I would like to show them this photo of poor Phoebe Prince, whose death, and many others, the law could have prevented.