Poll: Should Bullys be Prosecuted? (Poll)
- Thread starter Zack Alklazaris
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Genuinely ridiculous. Just because something can harm people doesn't mean it should be illegal, and it is very dangerous to prosecute anyone purely on the basis of what they say. If what is being done falls under harassment or assault laws, you can use those. But to criminalize people being mean? That would be a terrible disgrace to freedom, and I am shocked that so many people are willing to surrender that.
Why would they "need to learn how to handle people like that"? Here's how adults "handle people like that", they pick up a phone and dial 911. And I don't see how getting your ass kicked by someone bigger then you helps you mature as a adult, if anything the ass kicking would do hell of a lot more psychological damage then being immature, which apparently not getting bullied makes you.Aeonknight said:
Possible I guess, but at the very least we can actually do something about said prick when he does it.
Like any crime the punishment would depend on the severity of the crime. A wedgie obviously wouldn't land you in juvy/jail.
Not all bullying consists of you getting your ass kicked. That's when it becomes assault, and I have no issue with them being prosecuted for that. But to say that the authorities need to get involved every time someone calls you a name is just frivilous.Tiamattt said:
I can't help but think of how people who live such sheltered lives are going to cope if life suddenly gets hard at some point. They are just going to fall to pieces. They will have none of the required skills to cope with brutal times.
Beyond that, our legal system is from another century and I would not wish for anyone's life to be decided by it.
Beyond that, our legal system is from another century and I would not wish for anyone's life to be decided by it.
I really don't see why there shouldn't be prosecution or at least some form of guaranteed punishment. Bullying really does seem to be getting worse these days with all of the online things that go on now and it may be the only way to get things to stop.
No.
People want to throw kids in jail for something really ambiguous as bullying?
How about having the schools and parents actually step up and punish their damn kids for being brats?
Seriously this generation of kids who have been raised by hippy parents needs to change, beat your damn kid's ass when he or she misbehaves.
But this is a generation of kids who scream foul if they get any sort of punishment, remember the dad who unloaded a 45 into his kid's laptop when she was being a brat? Look at all the kids and teens who were like omg he is a psychopath if my parent did that I'd call the cops!
That right there is the bs entitlement that this generation has been raised on, teach your damn kids discipline.
People want to throw kids in jail for something really ambiguous as bullying?
How about having the schools and parents actually step up and punish their damn kids for being brats?
Seriously this generation of kids who have been raised by hippy parents needs to change, beat your damn kid's ass when he or she misbehaves.
But this is a generation of kids who scream foul if they get any sort of punishment, remember the dad who unloaded a 45 into his kid's laptop when she was being a brat? Look at all the kids and teens who were like omg he is a psychopath if my parent did that I'd call the cops!
That right there is the bs entitlement that this generation has been raised on, teach your damn kids discipline.
Like DANEgerous (who quoted you before), I believe this to the casem though I was not physically bullied. My worst memories of highschool are when teachers did nothing or wouldn't take action unless it was really serious.Scars Unseen said:
Yet two years after, when my sister began attending. She was suspended for being in the same ROOM as another person who said the N-word (and not even in a offensive way).
I don't care if it's just a slap on the wrist, I just would wanted them to give them a slap at all.
Ehhhh, this would be hard to prosecute in my opinion.
Yes, the bullies that bully kids to the point where the kids commit suicide, should be punished for essentially causing the death of someone. Actually carrying out the prosecution and prosecuting the right people, would be insanely hard.
Ok, it'd be easy to prosecute the bullies that beat up the kids, that is a pretty simple case. However, what about kids that only did it once? What about their friends that just sat their and watched? While they did not directly contribute to the physical harm, their presence gave the bully that did beat up the kid, the "courage" to beat up the kid. Wouldn't these kids be responsible as well?
Getting into the bullies that called kids names (which is all of them) would be much harder. How would you gauge severity of name calling? Would a bully that said "you're fat" once be weighed the same as one that said "you're fat" a thousand times? Would one that said "you're fat" a thousand times, be weighed the same as one that said "you're a fag" once? What about the ones that were not being bullied, that did not call the kid names themselves, but sat their and let it happen?
Ethics states that inaction is identical to inaction in most cases. If you are forced in a situation where you have to choose who dies, and you choose no one, someone still dies. In a case like that, you are still responsible for someone's death.
So, while it would be fair for the bullies to be punished for causing pain on those they bullied--I'm not going to get into the issue of the psychological problems the bullies go through that causes them to bully, that is another can of worms--it would be insanely difficult to actually carry out.
Yes, the bullies that bully kids to the point where the kids commit suicide, should be punished for essentially causing the death of someone. Actually carrying out the prosecution and prosecuting the right people, would be insanely hard.
Ok, it'd be easy to prosecute the bullies that beat up the kids, that is a pretty simple case. However, what about kids that only did it once? What about their friends that just sat their and watched? While they did not directly contribute to the physical harm, their presence gave the bully that did beat up the kid, the "courage" to beat up the kid. Wouldn't these kids be responsible as well?
Getting into the bullies that called kids names (which is all of them) would be much harder. How would you gauge severity of name calling? Would a bully that said "you're fat" once be weighed the same as one that said "you're fat" a thousand times? Would one that said "you're fat" a thousand times, be weighed the same as one that said "you're a fag" once? What about the ones that were not being bullied, that did not call the kid names themselves, but sat their and let it happen?
Ethics states that inaction is identical to inaction in most cases. If you are forced in a situation where you have to choose who dies, and you choose no one, someone still dies. In a case like that, you are still responsible for someone's death.
So, while it would be fair for the bullies to be punished for causing pain on those they bullied--I'm not going to get into the issue of the psychological problems the bullies go through that causes them to bully, that is another can of worms--it would be insanely difficult to actually carry out.
OF COURSE!
No, they really shouldn't. You can't just prosecute someone for their socialization, that would be like prosecuting someone for not wanting to eat their vegetables.
If you want to right what is wrong with this you need to find out what is causing it, it really isn't as simple as he bullies because he's a douche.
But of course when the line is crossed and they are commiting crimes, like physically assaulting someone, but then again isn't that obvious? Why should you ever be exempt from law just because you're young? Sure the punishment should probably not be as harsh but they still broke the law.
Bullying is one of those things which occur but arn't really dealt with until it is way too late. I mean you don't really punish kids severely enough in school and -at home- when they're acting like a complete douche. If they don't lose social standing, respect or confidence from behaving this way they won't actually understand that it is something they shouldn't do.
No one ever starts a day off with the thought: "Today I'm gonna be the biggest douche I can possibly manage to be.".
No, they really shouldn't. You can't just prosecute someone for their socialization, that would be like prosecuting someone for not wanting to eat their vegetables.
If you want to right what is wrong with this you need to find out what is causing it, it really isn't as simple as he bullies because he's a douche.
But of course when the line is crossed and they are commiting crimes, like physically assaulting someone, but then again isn't that obvious? Why should you ever be exempt from law just because you're young? Sure the punishment should probably not be as harsh but they still broke the law.
Bullying is one of those things which occur but arn't really dealt with until it is way too late. I mean you don't really punish kids severely enough in school and -at home- when they're acting like a complete douche. If they don't lose social standing, respect or confidence from behaving this way they won't actually understand that it is something they shouldn't do.
No one ever starts a day off with the thought: "Today I'm gonna be the biggest douche I can possibly manage to be.".
[/quote]No but they all carry legal punishment in that they are a crime, legal punishment is not a warning it is not detention it is something that goes on your criminal record. You get fines, jail time and probation. Also "assault" whether it is beating a person to a pulp or a mere slap in the face is the same criminal charge so yeah in a way that is how the law works IRL the only difference is you sue for injuries on a more sever case and can likely press attempted murder but if you do not get attempted murder and merely get assault yeah the severity of said assault is entirely irrelevant as far as your criminal record goes.[/quote]
LOL, go ahead and quote where I mentioned warnings or detention. And yeah you get the same criminal charge but here's the important part: the punishment itself would be different depending on the severity of the crime, some can land you in jail while others gets you a slap on the wrist and a fine. Not sure what world you're living in but that's a lot different then just having the option to sue someone or trying to get a higher charge. And no idea why you're even bringing criminal record into this, I certainly didn't mention it.
LOL, go ahead and quote where I mentioned warnings or detention. And yeah you get the same criminal charge but here's the important part: the punishment itself would be different depending on the severity of the crime, some can land you in jail while others gets you a slap on the wrist and a fine. Not sure what world you're living in but that's a lot different then just having the option to sue someone or trying to get a higher charge. And no idea why you're even bringing criminal record into this, I certainly didn't mention it.
C'mon, do you guys really think punishing the bullies is going to make it better? That somehow it's going to stop it?
As if that's not gonna reinforce the alleged bullies and make them come back to the harassment twice as hard? That's not how kids work.
We need to teach people to toughen up. There is a lot of solace in the ability to not care what people think about you. Telling kids that the bullies have no right to bully you only makes it harder when they can't accept the fact that there generally is nothing you can do. Go to the victims of bullies instead. Work with them.
The people that end up killing themselves because of bullying? Sure, go after those kids. Though I'm not saying that in the hopes that the bullies in those situations will be reformed. They should be punished.
As if that's not gonna reinforce the alleged bullies and make them come back to the harassment twice as hard? That's not how kids work.
We need to teach people to toughen up. There is a lot of solace in the ability to not care what people think about you. Telling kids that the bullies have no right to bully you only makes it harder when they can't accept the fact that there generally is nothing you can do. Go to the victims of bullies instead. Work with them.
The people that end up killing themselves because of bullying? Sure, go after those kids. Though I'm not saying that in the hopes that the bullies in those situations will be reformed. They should be punished.
Zack Alklazaris said:
I'd be very cautious about such a statement. How was such a figure worked out? Are they classing all 'cutting' as a suicide attempt? How big is the sample size? Are the children's claims verifiable or are they exaggerating/suppressing certain things?
I guess I'm sceptical because the vast majority of people get some kind of bullying at some point in school. If 8% of those people were trying to kill themselves there'd be a lot more dead kids.
And it's not that long since I was in school, and I certainly don't remember any of my classmates trying to top themselves. You had a couple of idiots cutting, but that's not a suicide attempt. We had two people in my school (which had about 2500 pupils at any time) actually kill themselves, and one of them was after she left. That's during a period through which about 3100 people went through our school. That's nowhere near 8%. And as you'll see, I'm from an area that really excelled itself at suicide!
You have my sympathy! And the internet is obviously a factor, but you must remember that the media has a habit of over-sensationalising these things:Zack Alklazaris said:
I'm from a town called Bridgend that was, while I was doing my A-Levels, informally known as "Suicide Central" because of the supposedly high rate of suicides in the under 25s. We even got our own wiki page [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgend_suicide_incidents]!
But the thing is, the media didn't report this accurately, they sensationalized [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3635396/Bridgend-suicides-It-just-seems-normal-fashionable-almost...-.html] everything to fit their world view.
They decided to blame Bebo (kiddy social networking site). No one at the time even used Bebo. But the press became convinced [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-517410/The-Bridgend-suicides-Just-whats-happened-innocent-little-town-I-grew-in.html] that there was some kind of suicide cult that persuaded people online to off themselves. It was patently absurd. People don't kill themselves because of social networking sites.
I agree that more could be done by websites to deal with online bullying, but at the end of the day, it's down to the individual. You don't have to log in after all.Zack Alklazaris said:
Even if facebook were to say tomorrow that they were shutting down all under-18 accounts, kids would be mean to each other on myspace. Or MSN.
As other have said, the law is already there to protect those that are the victims of serious bullying (bodily harm, threats, persistent harassment).
If you were to criminalise bullying as a whole you'd get millions of prosecutions of minors, when very little harm had actually been done, on spurious evidence (kids lie), for very little gain.
Almost everyone gets some kind of grim bullying at some point in school. If it were illegal, I'd have put half my class behind bars by the time I was 14. And I'd have been behind bars too. And that would hardly improve things for anyone!
This.Jamash said:
I would agree that more needs to be done in order to enforce those laws, and to show kids/young people that treating other people in that manner is unacceptable, and that there will be consequences.