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Behaviours indicative of bullying among young and juvenile male offenders: a study of perpetrator and victim characteristics
Author(s) -
Ireland Jane L.,
Monaghan Rachel
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
aggressive behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.223
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1098-2337
pISSN - 0096-140X
DOI - 10.1002/ab.20116
Subject(s) - psychology , prison , juvenile delinquency , juvenile , aggression , injury prevention , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , suicide prevention , clinical psychology , occupational safety and health , young adult , developmental psychology , medicine , medical emergency , criminology , genetics , pathology , biology
The actual characteristics of young offenders involved in behaviours indicative of “bullying others” or of “being bullied” have received only limited research attention. No research to date has focused on prison‐based behavioural characteristics. The present study aimed to explore these characteristics in a sample of young and juvenile male offenders. Subsidiary aims included examining the nature and extent of behaviours indicative of bullying, and the extent to which a developmental model of aggression can be applied to a prison sample. One hundred and thirty‐three offenders (102 young and 31 juvenile) completed a behavioural measure of behaviours indicative of bullying (Direct and Indirect Prisoner Behaviour Checklist). Juvenile offenders were more likely to report “being bullied” physically than young offenders and were less likely to report “bullying others” overall, directly and psychologically/verbally. Young offenders were more likely to be classified as “bully/victims” than juveniles. Prison‐based behavioural characteristics were more predictive of membership to the perpetrator and/or victim groups than personal descriptive characteristics such as age, sentence length, offence type, ethnic origin and total amount of time spent in prison. Bully/victims were predicted by increased negative and drug‐related behaviour and pure victims by decreased positive behaviour. There were no significant predictors for pure bullies. Bully/victims were found to react more aggressively to their victimization than pure victims. The present findings suggest that there are reliable predictors of involvement as a perpetrator and/or victim among young and juvenile samples. The findings are compared to previous research and discussed with regard to the environment in which bullying behaviour is being assessed. Aggr. Behav. 32:172–180, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.