Should bullying at schools be a criminal offence?

Caporegime
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There's a couple things, here.

1. Recently society has decided that parents must not smack their kids, and that it should be considered assault as it would were the recipient an adult.
2. Because of 1, then any instance of a child physically bullying another child must also be assault, purely for consistency. You can't criminalise smacking and then allow kids hitting each other, as it would make no sense. It's either assault or it's not.

So it follows then that you have to start going after kids with assault charges. On the one hand, they aren't fully mentally developed, but on the other hand, they do know how to follow rules and act in their own self-interest, from quite a young age.

Do you go after the parents or the kids themselves?

Some kids are ****holes because their parents are ****holes, I think we all know kids like this from our own childhoods. So perhaps going after the parents is the way forwards. But then maybe not, because abusive adults aren't all that likely to change their ways. Normally the best you can hope for is that karma bites them in the ass, hard.

And we know what taking kids away from their biological parents is a touchy subject. But seriously, how many ****hole kids don't have at least one ****hole parent?

You just plucked up something I am not even talking about - who said anything about hitting children as punishment?

There is actually only 1 thing here. Consequences from Actions. As I said, I will leave the judge for the actual consequence.

The kid will get his or her consequences for their actions, 10 years behind bars and whatnot, which also will be the punishment for the parent in itself.
 
Caporegime
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Depends on what you mean by bullying, a lot of bullying is already criminal because it involves assault, harassment, criminal damage or theft of property. If we're talking about ocassional name calling then obviously no.

The problem is the UK just fails to take action despite having the laws already in place.
 
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Permabanned
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The problem with smacking kids is that it teaches them that violence gets results. Kids then use that against other kids, it's not a good way to deal with the bullying issue.

That's pretty much why it's banned the world over.


Banned the world over? Really? Many countries with the lowest crime rates allow beating of children and beat adult transgressors until they need stitching up...
 
Soldato
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99% agree.

I think when the bullies get to an age of clarity of what they're doing (you know the type, Sergio Tacchini wearing, backwards cap, fag smoking ***** who are already stealing cars etc) then better interventions need to be invented. No idea what those are. Boot camp maybe.

bring back borstal, that's what those sergio tacchini wearing chav scrotes need. Borstal and a sound thrashing........................
 
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Violence breeds violence. It's not a solution. Unless you're a Neanderthal.

A quick Google says that 58 countries have banned smacking of children as of 2019.

There are 195 countries in the world. 29% have banned it to some degree. If I had the time I'd be interested in comparing crime rates between them. I do indeed share some Neanderthal tendencies ;)
 
Soldato
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The problem with smacking kids is that it teaches them that violence gets results. Kids then use that against other kids, it's not a good way to deal with the bullying issue.

That's pretty much why it's banned the world over.
To me (just reading up on the legalities of it), telling children off just doesn't work and seems a very frozen snow like way of doing things. Maybe they dont want their feelings hurt. They should man up and accept it, talking doesn't solve problems. Just to be clear I don't regularly beat my children but they do get a swift tap if they refuse to do what I tell them.
 
Soldato
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Anything under 16 gets wiped from your record. So unless it persists there isn't much point.

I however, was bullied very badly during school especially secondary school and sometimes I still think about some things to this day. Like what was wrong with me.

I had things like bottles of **** thrown at me, I had been whacked around the head with planks of wood, got followed home at least one a week. On the way home I got floored one day by a year 11 I didn't even know.
Everyday was a nightmare - I was small and suffered an eating disorder at the time too, and was epileptic.

School where next to no help, lunchtime used to be spent hiding away in and English classroom or something similar. parents didn't know what to do, they tried but they couldn't watch me 24/7 as they worked.

I definately think sometimes, bullying isn't all what it seems - I was very good at hiding it. A lot of kids are.
More should definately be done to stop the really abusive stuff happening - Because it can cause kids to do things such a killing themselves over it.

It crossed my mind when everything was going on.
 
Soldato
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Depends on the age of the bully. I was bullied relentlessly by one teacher, which has had a profound impact on my life. For someone like that, yes it absolutely should be a crime (child abuse should really already cover it).

My family reported it at the time, I was removed from any class that man was taking, and he was told to avoid me. No warnings, no reprimands, no punishment. It was the 90s, so I hope things are different now, but I suspect they are not.
 
Soldato
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I'm confused, you are saying that schools are soft, but then complain about them being hard on punishing what you deem to be silly. So which is it?

Soft, the punishment is over the top. It's boys playing boisterously, not the kind of bullying that might actually warrant a 2 day exclusion.
 
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