The effect of bullying can be serious and even lead to tragedy. Unfortunately, it is still a mostly unresearched area.
31 That year two shotgun-wielding students, both of whom had been identified as gifted and who had been bullied for years, killed 13 people, wounded 24 and then committed suicide. A year later an analysis by the US government found that bullying played a major role in more than two-thirds of the campus violence.
32 Numerous dictators and invaders throughout history have tried to justify their bullying behavior by claiming that they themselves were bullied. 33 Although it is no justification for bullying, many of the worst humans in history have indeed been bullies and victims of bullying.
Since bullying is mostly ignored, it may provide an important clue in crowd behavior and passer-by behavior. 34 Many of them have suggested bullying as one of the reasons of this decline in emotional sensitivity and acceptance of violence as normal. When someone is bullied, it is not only the bully and the victim who are becoming less sensitive to violence. 35 In this sense, bullying affects
not only the bullied but his friends and classmates and the whole society.
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