Bullying as a Formative Influence: the relationship between the experience of school and criminality

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Abstract
Most of the research literature on schools has focused on school management, organisation, the curriculum and teaching. There is comparatively little research on the experience of school from the point of view of children. Despite growing concern, and an increase in strategies to combat bullying, relatively little is known about the nature and underlying causes of the phenomenon. The overall concern of this research is to explore the correlation that has been found between bullying in school and the development of criminality. Lengthy, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 25 young offenders aged between 16 and 21 in order to explore childhood memories and retrospective accounts of their whole experience of school. The findings were highly consistent, not in terms of factual and personal details, but in terms of tone, attitude and circumstance. From the point of view of young offenders bullying was part of the ethos of the schools. The problem is not a matter of clearly isolated incidents and individuals. It is pervasive in the social life of school, and therefore all children are affected by it in one form or other. Any understanding of the problem can only be achieved by moving away from the overwhelming concentration on typical ‘bullies’ and ‘victims’ as many have experienced both of these roles.

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