Law and policy on the concept of bullying at school.

2015/05/01 by Dewey Cornell, Dewey G. Cornell, Susan P. Limber · 253 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression #Civil rights #Criminology #Education Discipline and Inequality #Ethnic group #Harassment #Harm #Law #Legal Issues in Education #Legislation #Legislature #Political science #Psychology

paper · doi:10.1037/a0038558

published in American Psychologist 70(4), 333-343 (American Psychological Association)

openalex publication_date 2015/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26

Abstract

The nationwide effort to reduce bullying in U.S. schools can be regarded as part of larger civil and human rights movements that have provided children with many of the rights afforded to adult citizens, including protection from harm in the workplace. Many bullied children find that their schools are hostile environments, but civil rights protections against harassment apply only to children who fall into protected classes, such as racial and ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, and victims of gender harassment or religious discrimination. This article identifies the conceptual challenges that bullying poses for legal and policy efforts, reviews judicial and legislative efforts to reduce bullying, and makes some recommendations for school policy. Recognition that all children have a right to public education would be one avenue for broadening protection against bullying to all children.

Citations

• Four decades of research on school bullying: An introduction.
• Translating research to practice in bullying prevention.

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• Longitudinal study of peer victimization, social support, and mental health during early adolescence
• Promoting Social Inclusion in Educational Settings: Challenges and Opportunities
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• The power and the pain of adolescents' digital communication: Cyber victimization and the perils of lurking. [europepmc]
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• Longitudinal Examination of the Bullying-Sexual Violence Pathway across Early to Late Adolescence: Implicating Homophobic Name-Calling. [europepmc]
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• How Teachers Deal with Cases of Bullying at School: What Victims Say. [europepmc]
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• Association between Bullying Victimization and Aggression in Lebanese Adolescents: The Indirect Effect of Repetitive Negative Thinking-A Path Analysis Approach and Scales Validation. [europepmc]
• The Profile of Bullying Perpetrators and Victims and Associated Factors among High School Learners in Tshwane District, South Africa. [europepmc]
• Identifying Relationally Aggressive Students: How Aligned are Teachers and Peers? [europepmc]
• Longitudinal study of peer victimization, social support, and mental health during early adolescence. [europepmc]
• An exploratory study of the prevalence and adverse associations of in-school traditional bullying and cyberbullying among adolescents in Connecticut. [europepmc]
• How do we identify potential perpetrators of indirect bullying and how do we help them? A review of the characteristics that are associated with perpetration and can be targeted through prevention and intervention. [europepmc]

Related

• Preventing Bullying in School and Work Contexts
• Does school bullying show lack of effective multicultural education in the school curriculum?
• Bullying in Schools: The Power of Bullies and the Plight of Victims
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