Bystanders

Most bullying takes place in or around school, and is often reinforced by other students as observers.

Goldbloom (1999) reports the results of a Toronto study. In more than 20 % of bullying incidents, peers enabled and supported the bullying behavior by physically or verbally joining in the aggression. They reinforced the behavior in 54 % of the cases, by watching but not joining in the aggression. Peers supported the victim in a paltry 25 % of the cases. Toronto's Board of Education estimates that in grades 4 to 8, one in five children are victimized periodically and one in 12 are bullied weekly or daily (Goldbloom).

We know that the effect of bullying on those who see it take place and some of those who hear about it suffer some of the same effects of the one who is actually the target. This is called the bystander effect.