Donna-Louise McGrath

Edited by

Donna-Louise McGrath

Global Perspectives on Bullying: Critical Contexts and Spaces

Critical Issues Issues Critical Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher Dr Daniel Riha Advisory Board Dr Alejandro Cervantes-Carson Dr Peter Mario Kreuter Professor Margaret Chatterjee Martin McGoldrick Dr Wayne Cristaudo Revd Stephen Morris Mira Crouch Professor John Parry Dr Phil Fitzsimmons Paul Reynolds Professor Asa Kasher Professor Peter Twohig Owen Kelly Professor S Ram Vemuri Revd Dr Kenneth Wilson, O.B.E

A Critical Issues research and publications project. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/ The Ethos Hub ‘Bullying and the Abuse of Power’

2012

Global Perspectives on Bullying: Critical Contexts and Spaces

Edited by


Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2012 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary publishing.

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ISBN: 978-1-84888-122-8 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2012. First Edition.

Table of Contents Introduction Donna-Louise McGrath Part 1

Bullying: Social Spaces The Fluid Space between Us Jan MacLean Cyberbullying … Some Reflections: From Childhood to Adulthood Luísa Soares

Part 2

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Bullying: Cultural and Racial Contexts Women and Workplace Bullying in Romania: Problematic Issues and the Framework of the Research Phenomenon Oana I. Zigman

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Perceptions on Hate Speech Victimisation among University Students Sevgi Çoban

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Violation of Human Rights as a Result of State Failure Anda Taropa-Iacob

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Introduction Donna-Louise McGrath Bullying is a complex international problem which transcends demographic boundaries and pervades almost every developmental stage of life. It occurs in an increasing plethora of contexts; in the schoolyard, in the workplace and in cyberspace, where the internet has become a new tool for bullying. Indeed bullying no longer simply occurs in face to face scenarios, where the perpetrator is known to the target. It is perhaps because of this diversity that there is no universal conceptualisation, definition, terminology, or measure of bullying. Deviant behaviours such as discrimination, harassment, mobbing and violence have either been used as synonyms, or differentiated from the construct of bullying. While on the one hand many scholars agree that bullying is repeated and persistent behaviour, some scholars argue that single incidents are bullying. In addition, while some scholars claim that behaviour must be intentional to be defined as bullying, others argue that the focus should be on the victims’ perspective of harm. However, irrespective of its form, mode or context, all bullying is characterised by an abuse of power. Furthermore, vulnerable victims are invariably pushed into powerless positions from which they have no avenue of escape, as the studies in this volume collectively illustrate. This volume explores bullying through an interdisciplinary and international lens. It entails a collection of papers presented at the 3rd Global Conference on Bullying and the Abuse of Power: From the Playground to International Relations. This annual conference took place over the course of three days in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2011. The work furthers the exploration of the Bullying and the Abuse of Power project that is part of the Critical Issues Domain of InterDisciplinary.Net. The Project seeks out research on bullying in a wide range of contexts. As in previous years, the conference was successful in bringing together an interdisciplinary group of academics, researchers and scholars from around the world, encompassing a range of disciplines such as psychology, sociology, education and social and political sciences. Significantly, some of the papers provide an insight into bullying in contexts and countries which have traditionally been under-researched. This unique volume highlights the importance of encouraging self-awareness and empathy and of respecting human rights and individual differences - areas which have traditionally received less research attention in the bullying field. While this collection of chapters demonstrates that bullying can take on a range of forms and occur in a wide range of contexts, the abuse of power and the powerlessness of victims is an evident theme. Some of the chapters also draw attention to the growing problem of cyberbullying among both school children and adults, where again, there is an abuse of power. These chapters show how in cyberspace, the perpetrator can abuse their power of anonymity and hence can

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__________________________________________________________________ behave badly, knowing they are likely to escape punishment. The spreading of nasty rumours and the posting of ‘hate speech’ are two such overt cyberbullying behaviours identified in this volume. In the twenty-first century, cyberbullying can thus involve the web site posting of harmful words about a person, so that contrary to the idiom, ‘sticks and stones may break your bones but words can never hurt,’ words can harm, as demonstrated in some of the following chapters. This volume, Global Perspectives on Bullying: Critical Contexts and Spaces, is divided into two parts: Part 1 - Bullying: Social Spaces and Part 2 - Bullying: Cultural and Racial Contexts. The chapters in Part One include some focus on the early development of healthy behaviour in children and adolescents - as an avenue to minimising the later potential for bullying. While some perpetrators of bullying appear to have a lack of awareness of the impact of their behaviour on their targets, others may have an acute awareness, and may even derive enjoyment from the pain that they cause their victims. Yet it is likely that many perpetrators do not stop to reflect upon the impact of their behaviour on others. Indeed such a focus has been rather neglected in extant bullying research. In the first chapter in Part 1, ‘The Fluid Space between Us,’ Jan Maclean examines how dialogue and the imaginative arts can be utilised to create an awareness of how our words and actions affect others. Discussing the long term effects of bullying and the lack of remorse felt by perpetrators, Maclean highlights the need for students to develop a deeper sense of empathy and compassion towards others. However, she also outlines the challenges involved in doing so, pointing out the difficulties in teaching philosophical reflections; ones which, she argues, need to be experienced and felt. In addressing this need, the chapter highlights the unique role of the arts in engaging students ‘emotionally and imaginatively with the curriculum,’ which Maclean attributes to the diversity and encouragement of multiple interpretations and opinions. In relation to bullying, she argues that the arts enable students to express and articulate their feelings and emotions, and perhaps more importantly in terms of bullying, to critically reflect upon how their behaviour might affect others. However, she also describes how other areas of the curriculum can also engage student imagination and creativity; although avenues which (in contrast to the creative arts) are reportedly more reliant upon the imagination of the particular teacher. The early encouragement and development of healthy behaviour in children and adolescents also underpins the next paper, albeit within a different context. Luísa Soares’ chapter, ‘Cyberbullying ... Some Reflections: From Childhood to Adulthood,’ highlights the stark duality between the positive and negative outcomes of modern technology. Soares argues that on the one hand, technology has been a useful tool for psychologists, yet on the other, it has often been used as a tool for bullying; thus labelled cyberbullying. Referring to examples from Portugal, the chapter begins by highlighting the positive aspects of human interaction which have arisen as a result of increased technology. Discussing the


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__________________________________________________________________ emergence of technology in aiding those with neuropsychological diseases, Soares points out examples of its novel uses in the Portuguese context. Balancing this view, she describes how cyber-dependency, on the other hand, presents an unhealthy use of the internet. Following on from this idea, she describes how the internet has led to a concern with impression management; where adolescents are focused on presenting a favourable image of themselves on socialisation web sites. In the context of Portugal, Soares also points to examples of bullying by adolescents on the internet. She then argues that from a psychological point of view, parents should be concerned when children spend too much time alone on the internet, and in contrast, those without computers might encourage a healthy amount of time be devoted to their use. Soares explains how the early development of such healthy behaviours may deter the later potential for cyberbullying. Bullying is a complex construct that can also be shaped by cultural influences and contexts. Indeed the three chapters in Part 2, Bullying: Cultural and Racial Contexts, entail some cultural or racial dimension. Most challenge traditional notions of bullying and raise questions about whether the academic conceptualisation and measurement of bullying is universal. As these chapters demonstrate, such constructs do not always neatly apply to cross-cultural contexts. Further, researchers in the field have often attempted to differentiate between bullying and other deviant behaviours such as mobbing, violence, harassment and discrimination. Yet challenging these attempts, some of the chapters in this part offer some insight into their commonalities, which on the surface and given their differing motivations, would otherwise appear to be different forms of abuse. In particular, bullying and discriminatory harassment appear to have much in common. Like the aforementioned constructs, they all involve the differential treatment of vulnerable victims and stigmatised groups, who invariably have an inability to escape the abuse or defend themselves. Such victims are often targeted due to their possession of difference traits, which quite often distinguishes them from the perpetrator(s) of bullying. In the first chapter in Part 2, ‘Women and Workplace Bullying in Romania: Problematic Issues and the Framework of the Research Phenomenon,’ Oana I. Zigman highlights the problems posed by a universal conceptualisation of bullying. In doing so, she considers the cultural validity of such definitions when applied to the Romanian context. Indeed Zigman explains that very little, if any, bullying research has been undertaken in Romania. She also argues that the lack of consensus on any universal definition of bullying is indicative of its complexity, so that the construct requires further clarification. Although there is some agreement by many researchers that bullying is repeated and persistent behaviour, Zigman argues that perceptions about what bullying is are shaped by cultural influences. Interestingly, she explains how there is an absence of a Romanian equivalent of the word ‘bullying’ and that if ever used, the concept is only used in the school yard context. Zigman also points out that there is some inconsistency in the use of the

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__________________________________________________________________ terms ‘mobbing’ and ‘bullying’ within the research literature. After analysing thirty five articles for use of the terms, she reports on the differential use and application of terms such as violence, mobbing and bullying in the research data, as well as a lack of consensus on the frequency and duration of bullying acts. Zigman explains how the resultant potential for confusion creates a barrier for researchers of bullying. However, not only is bullying shaped by cultural influences, but culture and race can sometimes be a motivation for bullying. Sevgi Çoban’s chapter, ‘Perceptions on Hate Speech Victimisation among University Students,’ focuses on various practices of hate, including ‘symbolic/implicit and anonymous forms of exclusion.’ Çoban offers a definition of the construct of ‘hate’ and the idea of ‘hate as a crime,’ which he explains is often motivated by some group trait such as race, colour, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, class or political affiliation. The chapter also explains how the internet has become a convenient tool for users to both openly express their hate and to form alliances; which Çoban attributes to its lack of regulation and supervision, and (like studies in cyberpsychology) the anonymity afforded by cyberspace. He then argues that bullying, mobbing and harassment share similarities with hate crime in that vulnerable victims become isolated. Applying these concepts, Çoban reports on the results of a study on one hundred university students’ self-reported experiences and perceptions of hate speech, whereby most were found to be exposed to some form of hate speech victimisation. These results are clearly presented in two tables: ‘Traits of Targets of Hate Incidents’ and the students’ ‘Perceived Motivation for Hate Incidents.’ In the third chapter in Part 2, we also see how conceptualisations of bullying can be framed within a cultural context; albeit where bullying involves the ‘use of force’ and a violation of human rights. Anda Taropa-Iacob’s chapter on the ‘Violation of Human Rights as a Result of State Failure’ describes issues related to human rights abuses. The concept of ‘bullying in wartime’ which Taropa-Iacob presents, extends well beyond the traditional ‘constructs of conflict and dominance in social contexts.’ Indeed the chapter begins by introducing the concept of state failure where Taropa-Iacob describes how the government and its leaders can bully its citizens, who, (like bullying victims in other studies) can lose their self esteem. Taropa-Iacob explains how in ‘fragile states,’ power is held by leaders and ‘innocent civilians are transformed into victims of their own country.’ In focusing on bullying in wartime, she presents a case study on Sudan, describing how the victims of war have an inability to avoid danger and are powerless to escape and protect themselves: women and children are forced to join the army, innocent civilians are sentenced to death without trial and people are forced to leave their homes. The chapter also explains how an abuse of power was further exerted by leaders by enforcing restrictions on public behaviour. Reflecting on these issues, Taropa-Iacob argues that a plan for recovery should focus on an awareness of the


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__________________________________________________________________ importance of respecting human rights and gender equality; goals, which she argues, might be accomplished with the help of the United Nations and other international organisations; with the aim of creating ‘a culture of democracy.’ As demonstrated in previous years, the chapter in this volume show that bullying is a prevalent international problem which pervades almost every area of life. Hence despite increased awareness, research attention, legislation and antibullying measures to stamp out the behaviour, ironically, bullying appears to be a persistent and seemingly increasing global problem. Furthermore, discriminatory harassment still occurs in the workplace, universities and other spheres of life, despite increased awareness of issues surrounding equity and diversity as well as legislation which renders the behaviour punishable. Indeed some scholars argue that policies on bullying and diversity do little to change the attitudes and behaviour of individuals, so that policies may have little impact on deterring the incidence of bullying. Indeed as this volume shows, bullying is not a simple construct and as such, an interdisciplinary global perspective can provide a much greater insight into its complexity and diversity. As this collection of studies demonstrate, the international and interdisciplinary nature of the Bullying and the Abuse of Power Inter-Disciplinary.Net conference was beneficial to advancing our understanding of bullying and viewing it as a global problem. Perspectives from Sudan, Portugal and Romania have enriched our international understanding of bullying. Indeed each of the chapters in Global Perspectives on Bullying: Critical Contexts and Spaces offer important lessons for future research and practice, including the under-researched practical issue of encouraging a critical self-awareness of the impact of our behaviour on others; the importance of respecting differences; the need to promote human rights, democracy and equality; and the cultural influences which defy conceptual presumptions about bullying. The editor thus hopes that the next Bullying and the Abuse of Power conference will similarly attract academics, researchers and scholars from a range of disciplines and from all corners of the globe.

Part 1 Bullying: Social Spaces

The Fluid Space between Us Jan MacLean Abstract Bullying in our schools, communities and workplaces begins with the belief that we can harm another person with little or no consequences to ourselves. Most of us are acutely aware of how we are affected by others, but are less conscious of how we effect. As educators, what can we do to encourage our students to gain a deeper sense of how our thoughts, words and actions affect ourselves, others and the environment? Martin Buber tells us that we can only grow and develop, once we have learned to live in relation to others; to recognise the possibilities of the space between us. 1 According to Buber, the primary means to accomplish this is through dialogue. For me, dialogue includes not only the words we use to communicate our thoughts, ideas and feelings, but also expression of our physical and emotional energy. For once we come to see our emotional ‘states’ as active and interactive, we are better able to choose how to express and direct them. Therefore, in terms of education, it is vital that students be provided with opportunities to engage in dialogue and the expressive arts in order to critically and creatively explore how they imagine the ‘fluid space’ between themselves and others. The purpose of this chapter is to look at ways that dialogue and the imaginative arts can be engaged to encourage a sense of caring, agency and responsibility in our students and ourselves. Key Words: Bullying, empathy, art, education, curriculum. ***** 1. In the Schools It is common knowledge that even with the increased emphasis on anti-bullying and ‘zero tolerance’ in our schools, bullying appears to be not only on the rise, but (with the help of the internet) becoming more pervasive and subversive. We now know through research on the brain that the effects of bullying are very real; ongoing bullying has negative effects on learning, emotional well being, and self concept in both the short term and the long term. According to a study conducted by the University of Chicago in 2007, short term effects include: anger, depression, anxiety, greater incidence of illness, lower grades than non-bullied peers and suicidal thoughts and feelings. 2 The effects of bullying can also have devastating effects throughout one’s lifetime. Long term effects include: reduced job opportunities, lingering feelings of anger and bitterness, desire for revenge, difficulty trusting people, interpersonal difficulties, increased tendency to be a loner, perception of self as being easy to

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The Fluid Space between Us

__________________________________________________________________ victimise and overly sensitive, self esteem problems and increased incidence of continued bullying and victimisation. 3 In many ways this research is a welcome relief, because it puts to rest (hopefully forever) the familiar adage ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.’ Somewhat surprising though, is recent brain research that has been conducted on the brains of bullies themselves. These studies reveal that while inflicting pain on another, bullies experiences pleasure in the area of the brain where empathy is usually felt. 4 These studies are unsettling to say the least, and lead to the question of why some individuals become bullies. One only has to Google ‘bullying in the schools’ to see that there are a multitude of theories in answer to why a person chooses to bully. These theories range from lack of nurturing, absence of empathy, to simply being a narcissist. The theories all hold merit. However, regardless of the reasons one might bully, ultimately, no matter how young or uneducated a person is, it is a choice we make. Part of the reason we make this choice is because at the core of bullying there is the belief that we can harm another person with little or no consequences to ourselves. I believe that to some degree this is true for all of us; regardless of our level of sensitivity, we are acutely aware of how we are affected by others, but are less conscious of and concerned with how we effect. It is obvious we would like our students to develop a deeper sense of empathy and compassion towards others, but it is less than evident how it can actually be encouraged. I wish to note that there are a number of very worthwhile programmes on developing empathy in the schools such as the ‘Roots of Empathy’ programme based on Mary Gordon’s highly regarded book: Roots of Empathy: Changing the World, Child by Child. 5 Programmes such as this can be effective, but the drawback is that they are usually an ‘add on’ to the curriculum, making it more difficult to teach, especially in the older grades. It is clear we need to go further. A more integrated, integral approach is needed, one that looks for ways to weave this work into the existing curriculum. 2. Role of the Arts Some would argue that empathy is not something that can be directly taught. This might be because empathy towards another is something that needs to be experienced, largely because empathy is something we can agree is a good idea intellectually, but unless we feel it in relationship to someone or something apart from us; we do not really know it. Consequently, I believe the key to encouraging our students to develop a deeper sense of empathetic connection to themselves, others and the environment is to engage students emotionally and imaginatively with the curriculum. I would offer that the arts are a domain ideally suited for providing opportunities for students to create these connections. One of the key reasons is that diversity and variability are celebrated in the arts. 6 In the arts, individual

Jan MacLean

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__________________________________________________________________ perspective is important and multiple interpretations are valued. Variability of outcome and diversity is not only expected, it is encouraged. Appreciation of diversity is a trait that can be transferred to ‘non-arts’ areas of one’s life because the arts emphasise there are multiple ways of being human. This can be experienced in the unique range of art produced by the students themselves, and also by viewing and appreciating art created by a range of individuals and cultures. As well, participation in art activities promotes flexibility of thinking that can be brought to areas outside of the art realm. In the arts we do not need to have a definite right or wrong answer; there can be more than one answer to a question and more than one solution to a problem. The ability to accept conflict and even enjoy the uncertainty of the moment can encourage students to accept people and situations that may make them feel initially uneasy. In addition, the ability to tolerate ambiguity may increase the individual’s capacity to adapt to new and stressful environments and situations. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the arts in relationship to bullying is that they offer a means to express and articulate what we are feeling, so that in turn we are developing the ability to reflect on how our feelings are affecting ourselves and others. Reflection is critical, because it offers students the opportunity to make sense of their lives and make meaning of the world around them. Expression followed by reflection is a key element of articulating our experience, because often we do not know what it is we are trying to say until we engage in the process of articulation; the feeling only becomes clear as we engage in the process of expressing it. Eisner points out that one of the most important roles teachers can play is to help students articulate their responses and feelings about what they have experienced. 7 However, ‘this something to say’ may not be able to be said in literal language. It is through the process of creating art that we are able to express a part of ourselves previously hidden from us and make it visible. Along with articulating and expressing our unique sense of self, the arts also provide spaces to more fully ‘take in’ another human being - to attend to them in a way that is outside of our usual mode of seeing and listening to others. As well, the arts offer us the means to have dialogue that is not dependant on verbal and written language that can sometimes obscure or distort our intentions. Through the process of imaginative art making, we are able to take the time to discover and develop our feelings without having to immediately describe and explain them to another. The arts offer our students a powerful means to come to know themselves and hence engage in the process of re-creating themselves. Few academic subjects afford this opportunity. This domain can provide the means to imagine new ways of perceiving who we think we are. Maxine Greene tells us that the arts offer us different ways of knowing, because they allow us to re-imagine ourselves and our world. 8 The ability to re-imagine ourselves is particularly relevant in relationship to students who are being bullied. This is because these students can often feel a sense of their lives shrinking and their sense of self can feel diminished. Therefore,

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__________________________________________________________________ finding ways to articulate and express their feelings and inner imaginings can play a role in helping students see themselves and their lives from a larger perspective. 3. Imagining the Fluid Space between Us To illustrate how the arts can be used to directly explore how we feel and imagine our emotional states, I am going to describe a series of art activities I have facilitated with a range of participants including: students in training to become teachers; graduate students who are also teaching in elementary and secondary schools, and practicing teachers. The primary purpose of these activities is to investigate how engagement with the imaginative arts can offer tangible ways to experience and communicate how our feelings, thoughts and words affect ourselves, others and the environment. A typical activity is begun with a drawing warm-up exploring simple mark making in a variety of ways that include: using non dominant hand, drawing to music, drawing with eyes closed, and drawing with both hands. After the warm ups, participants are asked to collectively agree on four strong emotions such as ‘anger,’ ‘joy,’ ‘anxiety,’ and ‘sorrow.’ Participants then individually create an image of how that emotion feels to them. When images are completed, they are grouped together according to emotion and participants critique and discuss the images in relationship to each other. Strong connections are noted such as: images of anger are predominately red and black in colour and use strong jagged lines; overwhelmingly, the colour blue and soft shapes are used for sorrow; joy is typically, pink, yellow and orange with expansive shapes and curvy lines, while the colours for anxiety are predominately purple and green with crisscrossed lines. There are a few exceptions; but it is generally noted that the images have more similarities than differences. Once the emotional states have been explored on a personal level, participants are then asked to imagine how they envision the fluid space between themselves and others. This phase is begun by exploring the emotional state physically, so that participants can locate the feeling in their body and take note of its particular frequency and rhythm. From there, members engage in a movement activity, sending the emotion back and forth in pairs (like tossing a ball), so they can experience what it feels like to physically give and receive the emotional state. At the end of each exploration there is time for participants to create images and discuss what they have experienced. Discussion usually centres on how the activities felt, questions raised, and exploring possibilities of how this work might be incorporated into the classroom.

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__________________________________________________________________ It should be noted, that with work such as this where emotional risks are being taken, the facilitator needs to create an atmosphere that is respectful and safe. The described activities are meant to evolve slowly and have a natural pace to them, so that participants do not feel pressured to share anything that makes them feel uncomfortable. Some of the most frequent feedback from participants is that the activities allowed them to connect their imagination to a concrete process of personal meaning making that they could share with others. Participants have communicated that having the opportunity to create and articulate images of their inner imaginings with others was what made the activities pivotal. In many ways, participants felt they were creating ‘tangible evidence’ of their internal experiences that they could readily reflect on and communicate to others. Teachers who have used some of these approaches in school settings, have reported that students not only enjoyed the process of creating images of their ‘inner states,’ but also noticed and talked about the universality of emotions and our states of being. This work can be extended by having students keep ongoing journals where they can reflect on and ‘map out’ their emotional states in relationship to themselves and others. In the next section I will discuss ways to engage students imaginatively and emotionally within non arts curriculum. 4. Filling in the Spaces In our current economic climate, we are seeing sharp drops in funding for arts programming in the schools. However, lack of funding does not have to mean an absence of creative and imaginative learning in the classroom. It does not cost money to design opportunities for students to engage creatively with the existing curriculum, it simply takes commitment and imagination on the part of teacher. The key is to look for ways to connect the curriculum to students’ emotional and imaginative lives. 9 One of the most powerful means to engage students emotionally and imaginatively is through the use of narrative. Narrative is vital, because it is through story that we are able to make sense of our lives. Stories also help us to form empathetic connection with those we perceive as being different from us. ‘[Stories] are the tool we have for showing others what it is like to feel as we do and for us to find out what it is like to feel as others do.’ 10 However, literature and the arts are not the only areas of the curriculum where story can be utilised; all areas of the curriculum, including science and math, can utilise narrative to engage students imaginatively and emotionally. Along with engaging with the curriculum through narrative, it is essential that students be given opportunities to develop voice in order to form and share their own stories. This is an important step towards forming a ‘moral imagination’ because as Taylor states, ‘We are able to make ethical sense of the world and ourselves by seeing our own lives as an unfolding story.’ 11 One of the most effective means this can be realised is through reflective practice. Writing

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__________________________________________________________________ reflective responses to the material taught, offers students opportunities to relate the curriculum to their own experiences and existing knowledge. Equally important, is to encourage our students to question material being taught in a way that strengthens the development of critical thinking skills. This can be done in a number of ways, such as looking closely at context and posing questions such as: Who created this knowledge? Whose story is it? It is obvious how this can be used in terms of social studies, but it is equally significant in other subjects such as science and math. It should be pointed out that this approach to learning is not intended only for secondary students. It is never too early for students to critically examine how knowledge is constructed. Students can also critique and reflect on knowledge by looking at events through the eyes of ‘the other,’ for example in a lesson on early European settlement in Canada, students can tell the story of those events through the voice of a young aboriginal person. In this way, students are encouraged to begin to notice whose stories have been marginalised, or left out completely. This point is key because we want our students to be aware that to a large extent curriculum is socially and politically constructed, and hopefully to begin to see why it matters we develop a sense of agency and voice and allow others to do the same. 5. Concluding Thoughts Bullying is pervasive not only in our schools, but in our culture as a whole. Many people believe that bullying is ingrained and is something we should accept as being ‘a natural and normal part of life.’ I would offer that bullying does not have to occur. We all feel the emotions of frustration, boredom, rage, anger and helplessness from time to time, but none of us need to act out these feelings in the form of bullying. I believe we make a choice, consciously or unconsciously to transfer these uncomfortable feelings on to another, thereby making ‘the other’ our problem. However, before we can make the choice of how to direct a feeling, we need to become aware of our feelings and begin to see and understand how our words and actions are affecting ourselves and others. Throughout this chapter I have looked at the role education can play in encouraging more caring and compassionate relationships in our schools and larger community. I believe we need to educate the heart, along with the intellect and that this can best be achieved by creating curriculum that nurtures emotional intelligence by engaging students creatively and imaginatively in both arts and non arts areas. Curriculum matters, because as Eisner points out, in many ways ‘parents send their children to school to have their minds made.’ 12 What students learn and experience in school determines the way they will perceive, make sense of, and ultimately shape their world. The fluid space between us is alive and full of possibilities; we can consciously choose to create a world that does not believe bullying is a normal or natural part of being human.

Jan MacLean

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Notes 1

Martin Buber, I and Thou (New York: Shribner, 1966), 6-13. Mark Dombeck, The Long Term Effects of Bullying, 2007, accessed July 25, 2011, http://www.Mentalhelp.net.com. 3 Ibid. 4 Tara Parker Pope, ‘The Brain of a Bully’, New York Times, 2011, accessed August 3, 2011, http://www.newyorktimes.com. 5 Mary Gordon, Roots of Empathy: Changing the World, Child by Child (Toronto: T. Allen, 2005). 6 Elliot Eisner, Arts and the Creation of Mind (New Haven: Yale, 2002), 33-35. 7 Ibid. 8 Maxine Greene, Releasing the Imagination (San Francisco: Josey Bass, 1995), 85-86. 9 Kieran Egan, ‘Imagination, Past and Present’, in Teaching and Learning Outside the Box, eds. Kieran Egan, Maureen Stout and Keiichi Takaya (New York: Teachers College, 2007), 16-19. 10 Ibid., 15. 11 Charles Taylor, Sources of Self: The Making of Modern Identity (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), 7. 12 Elliot Eisner, The Arts and the Creation of Mind (New Haven: Yale, 2002), 13. 2

Bibliography Buber, Martin. I and Thou. New York: Scribner Publishers, 1966. Greene, Maxine. Releasing the Imagination. San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass Publishers, 1995. Dombeck, Mark. The Long Term Effects of Bullying. 2007. Accessed July 25, 2011. http://www.Mentalhelp.net.com. Egan, Kieran. ‘Imagination, Past and Present’. In Teaching and Learning Outside the Box, edited by Kieran Egan, Maureen Stout, and Keiichi Takaya, 1–20. New York: Teachers College Press, 2007. Eisner, Elliot. The Arts and the Creation of Mind. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.

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__________________________________________________________________ Gordon, Mary. Roots of Empathy: Changing the World, Child by Child. Toronto: T. Allen Publishers, 2005. Parker-Pope, Tara. ‘The Brain of a Bully’. New York Times. Accessed August 3, 2011. http://www.newyorktimes.com. Taylor, Charles. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989. Jan MacLean is a Lecturer with the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University.

Cyberbullying … Some Reflections: From Childhood to Adulthood Luísa Soares Abstract Depression and anxiety are two mental illness associated with cyber surfers. In our twenty first century society, new technologies dominate and also novel psychological illnesses have emerged. Cyberbullying is a behaviour mostly associated with young people and has become increasingly more problematic. On the other hand, recent studies have shown how technology is extremely useful in the work of psychologists. It is this stark duality of technological/cybernautic vs stimulation of positive aspects of new technologies that is thrown into discussion in this work. Cyberbullying is a highly interactive bullying behaviour which is a growing concern within Portuguese schools. Children or adolescents make up rumours and present them online, where the school population can view and comment on the rumors. Their goal is to covertly attack and ruin the reputation of the victim. This shows how social networks can be misused; a behaviour, which curiously occurs in younger children and has started to be seen in adults as well. At the psychological level, it is a devastating attack on a child, who is still immature, as well as on a teenager who has not yet reached his or her full development. There are few psychologists in Portugal and they need to exist in greater numbers in schools, companies, and hospitals to help reduce the damage of this new psychological phenomenon. Otherwise, these new generation of cyberbullies will go on to universities and work contexts - adopting similar behaviour. This is clearly not the future we want for our society. Key Words: Cyberbullying, psychology, technology, children, adolescents, adulthood. ***** 1. The Positive Aspects of Human Interaction with Technologies This chapter will present some reflections and provoke more questions than answers to cyberbullying from childhood through adulthood. It is from these emergent questions that we might develop some group solutions and some day, change such behaviours. This chapter begins with positive examples of human interaction with technologies. The more intense the technological development and the use of technologies, the more we are likely to see psychological problems. Yet the opposite also happens. The more neuropsychological diseases arise, such as Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, strokes, tumors, there will be more development in new technologies. As psychologists, it makes sense to use these new technologies, when they have benefits for the patient, such as computer programmes that diminish

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Cyberbullying ... Some Reflections

__________________________________________________________________ memory loss. For example the wii game is already used in some nursing homes in Portugal as a way to stimulate the fine and gross motor skills of older people. They use it also as a way to promote their social interaction and for creating competition matches between them. However, this healthy harmony between technology, mental and physical health is not always seen. Cyber-dependency is a good example of an unbalanced and unhealthy use of the internet. Compared to adults, children and adolescents have less cognitive and emotional maturity to know how to deal with dangers and disadvantages of an excessive use of new technologies. But, psychologists also observe the husband or wife with dysfunctional relationships; who may find the virtual world provides an escape to their real problems. This escape, sometimes delaying the problem, is the basic camouflage of more severe psychological problems, delaying conflicts and family dysfunction. People with interpersonal relationships difficulties, more easily reinvent themselves as very competent in the social network, but most often fail to apply this expertise in the real world. Ideally, virtual training is healthy, but only if they can test this social skill in the real life scenario. Currently the subject of interactive skills between humans and computers is increasing. One of the positive effects of the use of internet or interactive gaming, if done with common sense and balance, is precisely to encourage socialisation. For instance, colleagues can help each other, the older ones help the younger ones to achieve levels of greater complexity in games, or those who know better help the ones that do not, rather than using an aggressive competition. This interactivity also stimulates important cognitive dimensions that are needed to learn to read and write, like concentration, attention, self-regulation. This is very important when pursuing increasingly complex goals. 2. Challenges in the Present and in the Future In the past, friendship relations were built by contacts in school, people communicated in face to face interactions, knew each other in class, looked for common interests and became friends, mainly through verbal and real interaction. Currently, invitations to be friends are also made online, in response to some attraction to the best profile or image that arises in the social network. It is the virtual image that people wished they had, rather than their real one, which they tend to present to others online. You select exactly what you really want to show. This seems to be a form of protection against being rejected and hence, their proliferation. In the real image, the face, the image, the profile can no longer be so selected. The ideal is to have harmony between these two forms of image presentation: the virtual image keeping up with the real one. It is amazing to see how adolescents take pictures and position themselves to get the most of their image. There are no inhibitions. They realised that the image is very important in today’s world, for friends and to be accepted socially. Family and educators should not censor too much this new paradigm. They should balance

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__________________________________________________________________ it with something that is equally important, which is not only to look beautiful but also acting beautifully. Parents should also encourage the use of social networks for charitable causes, behaviors of good citizenship, concern for the environment and the promotion of behaviours related to team work. This is one of the challenges that schools and psychologists face in seeking to help teachers and students to cope with this phenomenon. There has recently been a concern by some researchers at the University of Madeira, Portugal about the use of the Internet and the levels of loneliness among university students. Some results of the studies 1 are very surprising. The students that used the internet the most appeared to be more sociable and thus used the internet to improve social contacts and make new friends - on the contrary to what to be expected. These students from Madeira University seemed to use the internet very wisely. The fact that they lived on an island in the south of Europe, isolated region can be a beneficial factor and not limiting factor. The desire to explore new social relations, of different cultures is an inherent need because there is not an immediate contact with people from other countries, like the students from Spain, France or Italy, who by land immediately know different cultures and different people. 3. Parental Supervision of Children and Adolescents in Cyberspace From the psychologists’ point of view, parents should be attentive to signs such as, when children or young people no longer want to participate in outdoor activities (sports, parties, travel) because they prefer to be online as they change their social behaviours (become more isolated, talk less with their parents, are abusing the phone by sending excessive messages). These are the signs that parents should remain vigilant and explore such issues with their children, by calm dialogue. Parents should not immediately exercise an authoritarian attitude, (although it may seem that the solution is usually more effective immediately, but it is unsuitable in long term). Ideally, they should try to understand why there was a change of behaviour and try to negotiate alternative ways to use the internet so that children can return to their usual physical and social activities. Should parents prohibit the use of the Net? Not at all, but they can promote one day a week which does not involve technology. And families who do not have access to technology should promote the contrary one day to work on computers, learn how to enter and interact in social networks. A balance in the management of time and engagement in different activities is always the best routine for the family. For example, establish that at mealtimes, television should be off. If families try to do this, a need to communicate with each other will develop. After dinner, they may watch TV and play the computer. At that time, dialogue is important, such as asking children and how their day was. This is all part of being a healthy family. Parents should have some awareness of ways they can maintain good communication with their children, specially teenagers. They should have access to the social network of their children, to know who the people are they add in their

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__________________________________________________________________ social networks. Also they should talk about the dangers of accessing certain websites or accepting certain invitations (without scaring them too much), using simple language and adapting it to the age of the child or teenager. It is better to be concrete and goal oriented towards such dangers and to discuss what they can do about it. Parents should not forget to show caring for the child or adolescent and always encourage them to use social networks in a mature and responsible way. Part of being a parent is also to provide freedom with responsibility and parental supervision must be seen, not as a roadblock control, but as a guide to detecting potential dangers. The best parenting is when rules are negotiated, explained and practiced in a democratic way with authority rather than authoritarianism. This is especially effective with teenagers, who seek to empower themselves from the parental figure, not talking about his life and hiding the sites they visit, for example by turning off the computer when parents approach the screen. If the parental figure is too authoritarian, the teenager will go further away, and this will increase their need to hide their concerns. If the father or mother is genuinely interested in knowing the sites that they are visiting, the friends they decide to accept, know his interests, if they try to invite the cyber friends at home to meet them gradually, avoiding judgments, their communication will surely be healthier and more transparent. Many parents should take basic training in new technologies to keep pace with technological growth around their children. Or at least they should worry about how Facebook works, the Buzz, the Tweeter, the Google+ and other social networks. Ask children for help in introducing them to new technologies may be a good form of communication and supervision between parents and their children, to the extent that parents can learn from children some areas of technology, but children can and should benefit from the supervision of parents in selecting healthier and less harmful content. 4. The Context of Portugal In Portugal there is an interesting and recommendable website for parents, entitled ‘safe kids in the internet.’ 2 It is a notable public service where you can find behaviors and rules you should adopt to maintain constructive supervision of children. The headline of this site is very appropriate: ‘Minimize risks and maximize benefits’ and it is really this balance that parents should undertake to maintain the supervision of their children. The author of this idea is called Tito Morais and he has been educating the community about this theme and doing remarkable community service work. On the other hand, in Portugal, we have also seen some behavioural problems in schools regarding bullying. This has been quite a concern. The last incident in a school context happened between teenagers girls, where one was severely hitting the other and a third girl was filming the fight, later posted on Facebook. It was

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__________________________________________________________________ very controversial at the time, because they were under 16 years old and went to a public court to be judged. The aggressors went, as a punishment, to an institution for troubled teenagers. What should a community do in a case like this? It goes beyond the school context and beyond family context. It occurs in the cyber world. There is no rule to control it. We need to ask whether there is still time to change such behaviour before teenagers go on to university or to a professional working context. This bullying behaviour is also occurring at universities. 5. Conclusion The majority of university teachers in Portugal have not received a technological education. The student nowadays is much more technologically interactive. This could be a challenge for the teacher. I would probably say that, the focus should be more about learning new interactive behaviours and not so much about learning new technologies. This logic should be implemented from kindergarten and then throughout the educational pathway of students until university. Entering the professional world, and with young adults for example, looking for a first job, or with unemployed adults the use of social networks can be highly effective, like the use of Linkdin or Craigslist. Interactivity with technologies, e.g. building an attractive CV and putting it online is what young people should aim for. This is changing behaviours to make the most of new technologies. We should redirect the use of technologies to positive behaviours from a very early age. Maybe this way we can avoid cyberbullying and put online instruments to a better use.

Notes 1

For a more detailed analysis of these studies, cf. Filipa Oliveira, Carla Lucas and Luísa Soares, Bem-estar Psicológico e Padrões de Utilização da Internet em Estudantes do Ensino Superior, ed. RESAPES (University of Aveiro, 2010), 25. 2 ‘Safe Kids in the Internet’, accessed May 10, 2011, http://www.MiudosSegurosNa.Net.

Bibliography Oliveira, Filipa, Carla Lucas, and Luísa Soares. ‘Solidão e Padrões de Utilização da Internet em Estudantes Universitários’. In Livro de Actas do I Congresso Nacional de Apoio Psicológico no Ensino Superior: Modelos e Práticas RESAPES. Paper presented at Livro de Actas do I Congresso Nacional de Apoio Psicológico no Ensino Superior: Modelos e Práticas - RESAPES. Universidade de

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__________________________________________________________________ Aveiro, May 20th and 21st, 2010, 558–563. ISBN 978-972-789-311-9. http://www.wix.com/resapes/congresso. Soares, Luísa, Filipa Oliveira, Carla Lucas, Liliana Roque, and Joana Cadima. ‘Loneliness Levels Influence the Use of the New Technologies in 1st Year College Students?’ Paper presented at Livro de Resumos in the 39GUIDE International Workshop, Rome, Italy, 1-17, 2010. Luísa Soares is an assistant professor at Madeira University in Portugal, has a PhD in psychology and is the leading author of the psychological counselling service at Madeira University in Portugal. She is also the director of the Bachelor degree in psychology and the director of the post graduation studies in human factors and technology in the same university.

Part 2 Bullying: Cultural and Racial Contexts

Women and Workplace Bullying in Romania: Problematic Issues and the Framework of the Research Phenomenon Oana I. Zigman Abstract The phenomenon of workplace bullying is not only of interest because of its harmful effects on both the victim and the organisation, but also because of the epidemic levels that it has reached, seemingly invading every aspect of our social lives. And yet, despite all the alarm signals, there is little, if any actual research on workplace bullying in Romania. This chapter highlights the difficulties Romanian researchers encounter in trying to analyse and capture the characteristics of workplace bullying in Romanian organisational life. These issues include the language barrier, or the lack of familiarity with the term ‘bullying,’ the lack of information on what bullying is and the confusion created by magazine articles that substitute the term for inappropriate synonyms. To support the hypothesis on these barriers to the researcher’s endeavours, online versions of magazine articles on bullying were analysed for use of inappropriate terms and women’s self narrative of perceived workplace bullying. Key Words: Bullying, definition, identification, perception, victim, terminology. ***** 1. Introduction Workplace bullying has received increased research attention in the UK and Europe in recent years. 1 Within the UK, it has been recognised as a major source of stress at work by trades unions (Labour Research Department, 1997) and employers 2 and has been found to have affected the majority of employees in Great Britain; either directly (as targets) or indirectly (as observers). 3 Bullying impacts negatively on targets’ mental and physical health with well documented psychological effects including symptoms consistent with stress, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. The fact that there is no generally agreed on and comprehensive research definition of workplace bullying suggests that it is a complex and variable construct. Measures of workplace bullying, in terms of objectively identified variables, have also seen limited success, failing to capture the diversity of experiences. Identifying and labeling bullying is highly problematic for researchers and also, in practice, for observers and targets within organisations. Rather, the questions regarding what is identified as bullying, by whom and how, are central issues in developing the construct of workplace bullying; ones which need further clarification. These issues may be better considered as issues of ‘process,’ or as problems of identifying complex patterns of interaction, rather than of identifying

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Women and Workplace Bullying in Romania

__________________________________________________________________ discreet behaviours or types of behaviours. There is a difficulty in identifying situations where bullying is very subtle and complex. Thomas-Peter has argued that criteria for acceptable and unacceptable behavior consists often of only unwritten, unshared, personal assumptions; which shows that the perceptions on violent behavior of each individual and organisation plays a very important role and can lead to identifying different resources of support and help. 4 Moreover, Niedl has argued that perceptions are a very important part of the complex process of bullying, at both individual as well as organisational levels. 5 Taking into consideration the fact that perceptions, in turn, are very susceptible to cultural influences, it is also likely that they differ from individual to individual, and in different contexts. How problems are perceived may impact directly on the social resources available to targets of bullying, and in turn on how they make sense of their experiences. The same situations apply to the Romanian research framework in the area. Actually, we could argue that Romanian researchers might be confronted with even more difficulties. This chapter is part of a PhD thesis in the field of workplace violence and the victimisation of women in the workplace or during work hours. The conceptualisation of the key terms, of which the most important one is ‘workplace bullying,’ is especially critical, since all researchers, not only Romanian ones, face the difficult task of having to opt for a suitable and complete definition of the phenomenon. The problem in defining the term lies firstly in the fact that researchers have tried for a long period of time to offer a complete and generally acknowledged definition of what workplace bullying is, but up until the present time, they have failed. The conceptualisation of bullying has thus varied and this has complicated its measurement and understanding. 6 A number of studies use the term bullying, as understood and conceptualised by Hoel, Sparks and Cooper, meaning a phenomenon that includes repeated physical, psychological, emotional, verbal or sexual abuse, hostility, threats or harassment in the workplace. 7 Although there is no such thing as a single generally accepted definition of bullying, most researchers agree on the fact that for actions to be considered ‘bullying;’ repetition of behaviour over a period of time is essential. The general consensus is that for an action to be deemed bullying, it has to continue over a long period of time and it has to be repetitive at a certain frequency. Leymann is one researcher who has accentuated the fact that actions should have a frequency of at least once a week and duration of at least 6 months. 8 While the definition and characteristics provided by Leymann are reflected in most subsequent definitions like those of Norwegian, German, Finish, British, Danish and Austrian researchers, other researchers propose a more recent definition which refers to actions such as: harassing, offending, social exclusion, affecting negatively someone’s work tasks but with the common characteristic regarding the repetition and persistence of the actions. 9

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__________________________________________________________________ 2. The Romanian Context Term conceptualisation is an important step in the research process. But besides the problems of defining the original term commonly used by all researchers in the field, when it comes to conducting a study on bullying in Romania, a more important problem arises: the absence of a Romanian equivalent of the word. Even though the English language is taught all over Romania from grade two up to university level, the term ‘bullying’ is not a commonly used outside of its academic field, and if it is used, it is mostly limited to that applied to the school yard context. To portray with as much clarity and precision as possible what the term bullying/workplace bullying refers to in Romanian, a two paragraph long explanation is needed. This makes the researcher’s work much harder when it comes to identifying and analysing bullying. Also, the level of difficulty encountered in researching the phenomenon is augmented by the fact that in Romania, bullying does not represent a topic of importance or interest. In fact it was only in 2007 that the first anti workplace mobbing center for women was created in the capital of Romania, Bucharest. 10 This is the first ever organisation to be started in Romania that has an interest in bullying and that has attempted to conduct and study the prevalence of workplace bullying in Romania among women workers. 11 Given that the term bullying is often considered only in the school yard context, another problem is that some researchers have tried to substitute ‘bullying’ with the term ‘mobbing.’ However, an ongoing debate between key researchers still exists, some arguing that ‘mobbing’ and ‘bullying’ are different terms which name the same phenomenon on one hand, and others arguing that they represent different behaviours. In addition, a related issue is that there is no Romanian equivalent for the term ‘mobbing;’ as is the case with ‘bullying.’ 3. The Study on Bullying in Romania In light of these issues, in the current study, we attempted to identify if the two terms (bullying and mobbing) are used as synonyms in the Romanian context and literature, or whether they are treated as separate constructs. During the study, written articles on the subjects were gathered from published articles in online versions of high ranking Romanian women’s magazines and magazines from other subject areas. The objectives in doing so were: 

To identify the terms used for ‘workplace bullying’ by the writer (in the Romanian language the English term does not have an identical equivalent - the specialists use the English term. This makes the issue of terms used a very important one, since it contributes to an individual’s awareness of the phenomenon as ‘bullying’).

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__________________________________________________________________ 



 

To identify whether the article contained a definition of the term and if the definition was correct (this is very important considering the fact that studies show that most of the information women obtain about bullying is from these kind of articles; thus the perceptions regarding it are dictated by authors); To identify the level of knowledge the readers had regarding workplace bullying by analysing the questions or the affirmations concerning it in the comment sections of the articles. To identify the degree of perceived exposure to workplace bullying by analysing the self narration from the comment sections of the articles. To see if we could identify from the comments section, the level of knowledge regarding national legislation and protection against workplace bullying and the use of these resources by the victims.

So far in this PhD study we have selected 35 articles which we have analysed for the following characteristics:  

   



Title and the relevance of the title with the actual content; The author/authors - in this case we were interested if the author/authors of the title were in any way connected to the field of workplace violence or workplace bullying in particular; The date of publication; The contents of the articles - what information was given, with what purpose if any was announced in the text, the correctness of the information; The number of views the article had; The existence of any other type or form in which information was given in the article (seeing as the articles were in digital form and uploaded on a website we took under consideration the existence and effects of other stimuli like visual - photo, motto, etc and audio - interviews); The possibility of commenting the article and the existence of any comments.

In regard to the analysis we performed on the comments collected from the articles we directed our attention to:

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__________________________________________________________________  

The sex of the user that uploaded a comment; The nature of the comment: whether it was a self narrative of a personal experience or the experience of someone known, asking help in a situation of bullying that is ongoing, offering advice, etc.

Although the initial number of online articles was 35, after a close analysis we later decided to cut our selection down to 20 articles, based on the elimination of duplicate articles which appeared on different websites and in different language translations. 4. The Study Results Out of the 20 articles we selected, nine contained the term ‘mobbing’ or ‘bullying’ in the article title (eight of them contained the term ‘mobbing’ and two of them ‘bullying’). The other titles of the article contained terms such as ‘violence’ (verbal/non-verbal), ‘threats,’ ‘making fun of,’ ‘discriminated,’ ‘harassment,’ ‘psychological terror,’ ‘aggression.’ Moreover, in analysing the text of the articles and comparing them to the titles, we noticed that most of them had used the two English terms as synonyms. Even in articles which did not use one the two terms in their titles, at least one of the terms were used in the body of those articles The publication dates of the articles chosen were between January 2006 and September 2011. The low numbers of articles written on this subject in magazines that address the workplace, or that have sections regarding work life in general, shows the low level of interest in the phenomena. Also, as we expected, the people writing the articles were not in any way related to the field, and surprisingly some of the websites of popular women’s magazines allowed forum members to write articles (while specifying that they do not take any responsibility for the information provided by the user and that they do not conduct any kind of evaluation of the paper submitted and uploaded on the website). Regarding the authors, we found that seven articles published online had no record whatsoever about the author; thus we were unable to identify if the author was a journalist, employee of the magazine, or a site user. In relation to the body of the text and the quality of the information, we found that:  

The length of the articles varied from 350 to 712 word plus 1 to 3 images. Also one of the articles contained a short interview with a psychologist. Out of the 20 articles analysed, 8 of them talked about the opening of the first center for mobbing victims in Romania,

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__________________________________________________________________ providing no (3) or little explanation (5) as to what mobbing is. 







Of the other 12 articles, only 4 provided correct and complete information regarding what bullying or mobbing is, thus leaving less room for confusion or misinterpretation than others. The sources of misunderstanding or possible misjudgment of a situation from the other articles were; the omission of certain characteristics such as frequency and duration of the acts, meaning that some of the authors induced confusion by using phrases such as; ‘if your work colleagues make fun of you, you might be a victim of bullying,’ or asking; ‘do you feel discriminated at the workplace? You are a victim of mobbing;’ and ‘bullying is more harmful than harassment in the workplace.’ Although some would argue these might not be completely wrong, they are nonetheless incomplete and misleading (as seen in the comment section of the papers; where women often identified isolated conflicts or ‘underappreciation’ as types of bullying or mobbing; in line with the body of the article). Although these are magazines are not professional research articles, some of them try to present theoretical information without referencing the citations in the article. Out of the 20 articles, only six of them had such references (two of them named one psychology article, while the other four identified who they interviewed - professional psychologists or project managers that worked in the area). The information provided in the body of the text usually referred to: a definition of the terms/definition by example (12 - definitions and 5 - definition by examples), cited statistics or studies on bullying/mobbing (15), causes and effects (4), defensive strategies/ coping strategies (7), ways to differentiate between bullying victims and non-victims (1), personal opinions (1), legislation in the area (2), translations of press releases from other countries (2) and expert interviews (4, of which one was audio format).

Regarding the comments section, we noticed that ten of the articles allowed users to leave opinions and comments, while eight articles did not. Only two of the articles did offer readers the option to comment on the content. Out of the total

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__________________________________________________________________ comments posted, 75 % were posted by women and 25 by men. For our study, the comments were classified into the following themes: 

  

Personal narratives of workplace bullying or perceived workplace bullying of one’s self or people around one’s self (including here examples and ways in which the victim made the abuse stop); Advice; Personal opinions on why bullying/mobbing occurs; Blame placement.

In the latter case, besides the comments in which we identified non-victims who proclaimed themselves to be victims, the ‘blame placing’ theme showed that there still are cases in which the victim feels guilty when accused of wrongdoings; therefore feels responsible for causing the bullying. More than half of the ‘blame placement’ comments were made by women. 5. Discussion and Conclusions Regarding the visibility of the articles, even if less than a quarter of the websites showed the number of ‘site visits’ the article had, all of the articles were written in online women’s magazines or communities with a high profile and a high number of registered users, and where the article’s content could be viewed without a login. Hence, site visits may not have been an accurate indication of interest in the article. However, what motivated our analysis of the information provided via online resources was the fact that nowadays, the first place people usually search for answers is the online community. They no longer buy printed magazines as often, since the information that they might find in them is often online. Yet there is a concern with the quality of the information on bullying which is presented via internet resources. Is the internet helpful when it comes to informing online users, or is it misleading? Hopefully this study will manage to shed some light, or direct some attention to this issue. Information is a weapon meant to be used in our defense and this is especially true in areas like bullying and other kind of victimisation, but to be useful, the information has to be clear, accurate and complete. Indeed the results of this study show that the low level of knowledge of bullying by Romanian women, may be attributed, at least partly, to the information that they access via the internet; information that, in many cases is incomplete, confusing, or presented in unfamiliar terms. Considering the fairly low number of articles we analysed, we argue that further research on efficient ways of creating awareness about bullying in the workplace is urgently needed. As the comments sections of the articles analysed show, another aspect that is in need of further study surrounds the misperceptions

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__________________________________________________________________ of blame in relation to responsibility for bullying and the abuse of power in work environments. When it comes to bullying and the abuse of power, the Romanian context is in its infancy and still lacking in both information and efficient measures of prevention and intervention.

Notes 1

See the following studies for examples: Stale Einarsen, et al., Bullying and Emotional Abuse in the Workplace: International Perspectives in Research and Practice (London: CRC Press, 2002); Charlotte Rayner and Cary Cooper, ‘Workplace Bullying: Myth or Reality - Can We Afford to Ignore It?’, Leadership and Organization Development Journal 18 (1997): 211-214; Dieter Zapf and Stale Einarsen, ‘Bullying in the Workplace: Recent Trends in Research and Practice - an Introduction’, European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology 10 (2001): 369-373. 2 Angela Ishmael and Bunmi Alemoru, Harassment, Bullying and Violence at Work. A Practical Guide to Combating Employee Abuse (London: The Industrial Society, 1999). 3 Helge Hoel, Cary Cooper and Brian Faragher, ‘The Experience of Bullying in Great Britain: The Impact of Organisational Status’, European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology 10 (2001): 443-465. 4 Brian Thomas-Peter, ‘Personal Standards in Professional Relationships: Limiting Interpersonal Harassment’, Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 7 (1997): 233-239. 5 Klaus Niedl, ‘Mobbing and Well Being: Economic, Personal and Development Implications’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 5, No. 2 (1996): 239-249. 6 Judith MacIntosh, et al., ‘Effects of Workplace Bullying on How Women Work’, Western Journal of Nursing Research 32 (2010): 911. 7 Ibid. 8 Heinz Leymann, ‘The Content and Developing of Mobbing at Work’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 5, No. 2 (1996): 165-184. 9 Agervold Mogens, ‘Bullying at Work: A Discussion of Definitions and Prevalence, Based on an Empirical Study’, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 48, (2007): 162. 10 The first Anti-Mobbing Center in Romania, (dates regarding founding, objectives, activities, etc.), accessed October 10, 2011, http://www.femeiaconteaza.ro/website/index.php/ro/centrul-anti-mobbing. 11 Study on the mobbing phenomenon and on different forms of discrimination in the workplace in Romania, accessed October 10, 2011,

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__________________________________________________________________ http://www.femeiaconteaza.ro/website/images/stories/Studiu_ICCV/studiu_iccv.pd f.

Bibliography Coyne, Iain, Penelope Smith-Lee Chong, Elizabeth Seigne, and Peter Randall. ‘Self and Peer Nominations of Bullying: An Analysis of Incident Rates, Individual Differences, and Perceptions of the Working Environment’. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 12, No. 3 (2003): 209–228. Einarsen, Stale, Helge Hoel, Dieter Zapf, and Cary Cooper. Bullying and Emotional Abuse in the Workplace: International Perspectives in Research and Practice. London: CRC Press, 2002. Hoel, Helge, Cary Cooper, and Brian Faragher. ‘The Experience of Bullying in Great Britain: The Impact of Organisational Status’. European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology 10 (2001): 443–465. Ishmael, Angela, and Bunmi Alemoru. Harassment, Bullying and Violence at Work. A Practical Guide to Combating Employee Abuse. London: The Industrial Society, 1999. Leymann, Heinz. ‘The Content and Developing of Mobbing at Work’. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 5, No. 2 (1996): 165–184. MacIntosh, Judith, Judith Wuest, Marilyn Merrit Gray, and Sarah Aldous. ‘Effects of Workplace Bullying on How Women Work’. Western Journal of Nursing Research 32 (2010): 910–931. Mongens, Agervold. ‘Bullying at Work: A Discussion of Definitions and Prevalence, Based on an Empirical Study’. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 48 (2007): 161–172. Niedl, Klaus. ‘Mobbing and Well Being: Economic, Personal and Development Implications’. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 5, No. 2 (1996): 239–249. Peyton, Pauline Rennie. Dignity at Work. London: Brunner-Routledge, 2003.

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__________________________________________________________________ Rayner, Charlotte, and Cary Cooper. ‘Workplace Bullying: Myth or Reality - Can We Afford to Ignore It?’ Leadership and Organization Development Journal 18 (1997): 211–214. Thomas-Peter, Brian. ‘Personal Standards in Professional Relationships: Limiting Interpersonal Harassment’. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 7 (1997): 233–239. Vartia, Maarit A.-L. ‘Consequences of Workplace Bullying with Respect to the Well-Being of Its Targets and the Observers of Bullying’. Scandinavian Journal of Work and Environmental Health 27, No. 1 (2001): 63–69. Zapf, Dieter, and Stale Einarsen. ‘Bullying in the Workplace: Recent Trends in Research and Practice - An Introduction’. European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology 10 (2001): 369–373. Oana I. Zigman is a PhD Student in the Sociology Department of the Al. I. Cuza University of Iasi, Romania.

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the European Social Fund in Romania, under the responsibility of the Managing Authority for the Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013 [grant POSDRU/107/1.5/S/78342].

Perceptions on Hate Speech Victimisation among University Students Sevgi Çoban Abstract Race, nationality, religion, gender and sexual orientation are the most frequent targets of hate. There are many other categories such as nationality, disability, gender, ancestry, political affiliation, age, marital status, union membership, economic or social status. On campuses, cultural diversity sets the stage for cultural encounters. In this chapter, following Gerstenfeld’s perspective, victimisation arising from various forms of hate can range from violence and intimidation, to new forms of hate such as the online and implicit forms experienced by students in this study. The study was conducted at a university campus. This campus is the most diverse national university in the United States. A survey of exposure to various kinds of hate speech was conducted among 100 criminal justice students. Twenty nine students reported on victimisation because of their race, nationality, religion, gender and sexual orientation, among other reasons. Seventeen of the incidents were verbal/online/implicit while others were against victims or property. Key Words: Hate speech, bullying, hate crime, diversity, hate speech on campus. ***** 1. Introduction There have been various legal definitions for hate as a crime since the 1980’s. The problem of hate speech has been identified within the criminal literature. The problem is of great importance for legislation and for human rights debates. The inclusion and exclusion practices in societies vary from violence and crime to implicit ways of discrimination. Since the discourses from which hate originates are changing rapidly, Perry suggests, we must define hate ‘as a socially situated, dynamic process involving context and actors, structure and agency.’ 1 Following this suggestion further, hate speech can be considered as an apparently unanimous part of symbolic economies underlying modern societies in everyday life. Inclusion and exclusion dynamics in modern societies vary from violent and obligatory practices to symbolic practices such as verbal, subtle and latent forms. The difference between these two kinds is in legitimisation; while obligatory practices have partial and short-lasting legitimacy and never are the permanent elements of social dynamics; the symbolic practices most likely are. Based on this variance, in this study, these various practices of hate are examined. Symbolic/implicit and anonymous forms of exclusion as well as obligatory forms are examined within hate speech context.

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Perceptions on Hate Speech Victimisation among University Students

__________________________________________________________________ This research is limited to university students who had been on a school campus at the time the survey have been conducted. The various forms of hate speech are compared in the university campus, which is rich in cultural diversity. It was assumed that hate towards people with different ethnic, racial, national, sexual and religious orientations is expressed within more symbolic, implicit, or anonymous attitudes than within criminal or violent behaviours in culturally diverse societies. Thus, the main aim of this chapter is to explore various forms of hate in a culturally diverse campus community. In the first part of this chapter, a brief literature review on different forms of hate speech is provided. In the second part, results of the survey on hate speech victimisation are shown in descriptive tables. Finally, results of the descriptive analysis are discussed within the context of various forms of hate speech. 2. Hate As a Crime The first legal regulations about hate crime was formed in the 1980’s. 2 The definitions vary: one stresses the possible victims; the other underlines the contexts which fuel discrimination and violence. According to the Hate Crime Statistics Act which has been in effect since 1990; hate crimes are ‘crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity.’ 3 Gerstenfeld offers the simplest definition: ‘A criminal act which is motivated, at least in part, by group affiliation of the victim.’ 4 White and Perrone stress that hate crimes typically harm not only stigmatised persons, but by logical extension, the social groups. 5 According to Craig, ‘a hate crime is an illegal act involving intentional selection of a victim based on a perpetrator’s bias or prejudice that relates to either the actual or perceived status of the victim.’ 6 Petrosino discusses the complexity and variation among definitions. 7 She explains that some definitions include race, colour, religion or national origin, while in addition, others include gender, sexual orientation, and physical disability. Even age, class or political persuasion can be added to the list. Given that there are many reasons for the perpetration of hate crimes in contemporary society, the term ‘hate crime’ has broadened. Jenness and Broad indicate how the term ‘hate crime’ has extended to include more and more aspects since the 1980’s. 8 The origin of the term referred to crimes based on racial, ethnic, and religious affiliations. Then the legal term expanded to include sexual orientation, gender and lastly political affiliation, marital status, disability and even age and physical appearance; thanks to the activities of social movement organisations. 9 But this extension is controversial in that age-related or disability targeted violence is not based on an group hatred, but individual expressions of hate. 10 There are some criteria for deciding if an incident is a hate crime. According to Jacobs, these include: 11

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__________________________________________________________________         

The motivation of the perpetrator The absence of any motive The perception of the victim The display of the offensive symbols, words, or acts The date and time of occurrence (corresponding to a holiday of significance, e.g. Hanukkah, Martin Luther King Day, Chinese New Year etc.) A commonsense review of the circumstances surrounding the incident The group involved in the attack Any similar incidents in the same area or against the same victim The statements, if any, made by the perpetrator

In sum, hate as a crime is different from symbolic forms in that it involves physical harm and costs to victims. 3. Hate As a Speech Green, McFalls and Smith 12 categorise theoretical explanations of hate speech into six domains: Psychological, social-psychological, historical-cultural, sociological, economic and political accounts. Their integration of these categories into a theoretical synthesis results in an interdisciplinary approach, rather than a theoretical model for explaining hate crimes. From a sociological point of view, hate crime is considered according to various views. Green, McFall and Smith offer two reasons for the occurrence of such crimes. 13 One of them is Durkheim’s explanation of anomie. In a rapidly changing world, hate directed towards outsiders is a means of promoting the perception of perceived community. And the other aspect, globalisation can be seen as an explanation of contemporary societies’ rapid change. With globalisation, people, groups, communities, ideas, movements are more mobilised then they were ever before. Rosenfeld claims: ‘Given the trend toward globalization and the instant transnational reach of the internet, a purely contextual approach would seem insufficient if not downright inadequate.’ 14 In contemporary societies everything can become a problem or start a conflict because of this plurality of norm systems. Some consequences of this diversity is bias or hate. Globalisation is the main context of contemporary hate crimes. Modern controversies bring about new forms of discrimination. 15 Gerstenfeld points out that although some scholars claim that there is a recent decline in bias and prejudice, some scholars insist on what is happening is that ‘the form of prejudice is changing and that the new type, which they call modern, symbolic, or aversive racism is more subtle.’ 16 New forms include and/or are related to internetbased messages or actions, privacy violation via new technologies, mobbing,

32


__________________________________________________________________ bullying or verbally discriminative expressions. These forms constitute a kind of anonymous, symbolic crime of which apparently there is no victim but in fact, every member of the target group is at least ‘uncomfortable.’ Gerstenfeld, Grant and Chiang examined a sample of extremist web sites and concluded that the internet is a convenient way for hate groups because it is largely unsupervised and unregulated. 17 The second feature is that it can be considered as an effective recruiting tool. A third advantage, they argue, is that it permits small, diverse groups to link to one another. Further ,in their article, Cyberstalking: The Technology of Hate, Bocij and McFarlane explains that ‘the anonymity offered by the internet enables people to participate in activities such as encouraging violence against others with little fear of retaliation.’ 18 In legislative procedures the definitions ‘hate speech’ and ‘hate crime’ vary for ethical reasons. In the USA, in order to protect freedom of speech, a speech that may express hatred to a specific identity group is not considered to be hate crime. In contrast, according to Turkish legislation it may cost a prison term of one to three years for publicly inciting ‘people to hatred and enmity … on the basis of class, race, religion, sect, or region.’ 19 4. Linking Hate to Bullying and Mobbing There are a number of definitions of ‘bullying,’ ‘mobbing,’ and ‘harassment based on race and national origin’ which occur in schools. There are some striking similarities between the two. The most important one is that in all three of them, the target is an isolated, vulnerable subject. In other words, the subject is marginalized in a violent or verbal way. The definitions include: Physical, verbal, or psychological attack or intimidation that is intended to cause fear, distress, or harm to the victim, with a more powerful person oppressing a less powerful one. 20 Hostile and unethical communication which is directed in a systematic way by one or a number of persons mainly towards one individual. 21 Oral, written, graphic or physical conduct relating to an individual’s race, color, or national origin that is sufficiently severe, pervasive, or persistent so as to interfere with or limit the ability of an individual to participate in or benefit from the district’s programs or activities. 22 Schoen and Schoen’s study also reveals the results of recent research on bullying and harassment in the United States and according to this review, people with disabilities such as stammering, hemiplegia, deafness, mild learning

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__________________________________________________________________ disabilities and attention deficit/hyperactivity are more likely to be victims of bullying than non-handicapped persons. 23 In his article, Leymann also gives an example of a Danish worker in Norway who is isolated and subjected to mobbing by his workmates because of his Danish accent. 24 5. Hate on Campus On campuses, cultural diversity sets the stage for cultural encounters. Although this is a great opportunity for cultural learning, it also has some unexpected consequences such as hate or bias, which can result in crime incidences. In their study on awareness of hate crimes on two campuses in Canada, Perry and DeKeseredy conclude that ‘while members of the campus community may observe racist, or homophobic, or anti-Semitic behaviour, for example, they do not “see” it.’ 25 According to the writers, this does not mean that the members of the campus community are not aware, but rather, they underestimate the impact of the problem. When new forms of hate are considered, this assertion is even more important. 6. The Present Study This research is a descriptive study on hate crimes on campus. A survey was conducted at a university campus. This campus was one of the most diverse national universities in the United States. 26 The campus hosts over 700 students from India, China, Korea, Turkey, Taiwan and other countries. The diversity of cultures on the campus makes it the most convenient location for the purpose of the present research. Ethics approval for the study was given by the Institutional Review Board of the University. A. Sample The Sample included 100 undergraduate and graduate students who attended a university campus. Most of the students were aged between 19 and 25 (72%). Fourteen of them were between 31 and 35 years old. Forty nine were female and 51 were male. B. Survey Self-report data were gathered in order to reveal the incidents and the perceived hate among criminal justice students on the campus. A self report survey was administered to the sample. The survey included questions about the most common types of hate speech participants had been exposed to, including that based on: race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation and gender. In addition, participants were asked about indirect/witnessed hate which they perceived had been directed to them.

34


__________________________________________________________________ C. Demographics As possible targets of hate, the sample group has been asked about their racial and national origins, religious beliefs and sexual orientations. Results are as such: Racial Distribution: Twenty nine students were Latin Americans while 28 of the students were white, 21 were African-Americans, 12 were Asians, and 10 were Arabs. National Distribution: Twenty nine of the students were from Latin America while 27 were USA citizens. Twenty students were from Europe, 7 were from Middle East, 8 were from Far East and 9 students were from African countries. Religion: Sixty nine of the students were Christian, 11 students were Muslim and 20 students had other religious beliefs. Sexual Orientation: Ninety two of the students were heterosexual. Five students reported that they were gay and 3 reported that they were lesbian. 7. Hate Incidents Table 1 shows that the most common type of the hate speech that students had been subject to was racially-motivated verbal harassment (7). Other common types were race-motivated but implicit, indirect or suspected attitudes (5). Verbal and indirect cases outnumbered more violent forms of hate expressions. However, 5 percent of the students experienced criminal forms of hate speech such as violence/threats and damage to property. Twenty nine students reported experiencing hate speech victimisation. Motivations for these incidents were race (14 incidents), nationality (5), religion (4), gender and sexual orientation (4) and others (2). As regards to how the incidents occurred, students reported direct verbal messages (17 students), implicit/indirect/suspected messages (5), violence/threat (3), damage to property (2) online messages (1) and others (1).

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__________________________________________________________________ Table 1- The Traits of Targets of Hate Incidents

Race Nationality Sexual Orientation Religion Gender Other N/A Total

Violence / threat

Against property

0 2 0

2 0 0

1 0 0 0 3

0 0 0 0 2

Type of Incidents Verbal Implicit indirect suspected 7 5 3 0 1 0 3 1 2 0 17

0 0 0 0 5

Online

Other

N/A

Total

0 0 0

0 0 0

0 0 0

14 5 1

0 1 0 0 1

0 1 0 0 1

0 0 0 71 71

4 3 2 71 100

The results reveal the traits of the targets of hate incidents. In most of the race motivated incidents, the target was an African American student (8 out of 14 incidents). Nationality-motivated incidents were mostly directed at students from Far Eastern Asia (4 of 5 incidents). The targets of religious-motivated incidents were Muslim students (2 out of 4) and students of Far Eastern religions (2 of 4). Lastly, the targets of sexually-motivated attitudes were female (3 of 4) and gay students (1 of 4). ‘Other students’ were involved in 10 incidents. Unknown persons (10), organised groups (5), employees (2) and others (2) follow this. None of the incidents were reported to the police. As for the reasons for not reporting the incident to the police, six students thought that ‘the incident was trivial/police would not/could not do anything/common occurrence.’ Four reported that it was private and/or to be dealt with on their own. Four did not report the incident because there was no evidence; the incident was implicit. Four reported that it was inconvenient to go to the police. Two reported the incident to ‘other authorities,’ not to police. Two students did not report the incident because of dislike or fear of police and/or previous bad experiences with police or courts. Five students did not indicate a specific reason for not reporting the incident. 8. Witnessing Hate Ten students reported witnessing 10 hate speech events targeted at other people. Table 2 shows the perceived motivation and type of the incidents. Most of the incidents were racially oriented, verbal and implicit/indirect/suspected. Implicit/indirect/suspected events directed toward the target’s sexual orientation was the second most common type of incident. There were also nationality motivated incidents; including one verbal and one implicit incident.

36


__________________________________________________________________ Table 2 - Perceived Motivation for Hate Incidents Verbal Race Nationality Sexual Orientation N/A Total

3 1 1 0 5

Type of Hate Incident Implicit/indirect/susp ected 2 1 2 0 5

N/A

Total

0 0 0 90 90

5 2 3 90 100

9. Discussion and Conclusions The results indicate that hate speech victimisation was common among university students in the sample. About one third of the students had been victimised, while one tenth reported witnessing such incidents. Five out of one hundred students reported that they were victims of violent behaviours. Hence most students experienced nonviolent, verbal or indirect behaviours. Since most of the problems were common daily occurrences, none of them had been reported to the police. It is important to note that none of the violent cases had been reported to the police because they were considered to be trivial, or the victims perceived that the police could not do anything, or there was a lack of evidence. In such cases, the victims had a disadvantaged position within society that lead him/her to avoid encounters with authorities such as the police. This inequality in power relations has a great effect on official hate statistics, suggesting that the number of actual incidents could be much greater than reported. The incidents reported during this research can be viewed as simple conflicts which occur in daily cultural encounters and can be solved via communication. However, some scholars stress that language is not a neutral medium, but a medium for struggling with power. Thus, all symbolic forms of bias, discrimination and hate expressions are, in a way, instruments of subordination. These symbols are used ‘not only to express hatred or contempt for people but also to “put them in their place”, that is to treat them as having inferior moral standing.’ 27 As such, any form of hate expression, whether it is implicit/nonviolent or direct/violent, prevents on all kinds of possible exchanges between different cultures. Universities’ regulations against hate crimes are effective for establishing an environment that is based on respect to the ‘other’s’ rights on campuses, to some extent. In daily practice, hate speech usually emerges in quite implicit forms, so it is not usually possible to consider such expressions as a ‘crime’ nor to report them to authorities. Thus, symbolic expressions require ethics awareness. In regard to campus communities, the roles of student organisations are no less important than that of academic and administrative staff in creating this awareness.

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__________________________________________________________________

Notes 1

Barbara Perry, In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes (New York: Routledge), 9. 2 Carolyn Petrosino, ‘Connecting the Past to the Future’, in Crimes of Hate: Selected Readings, eds. Phyllis. B. Gerstenfeld and Diana R. Grant (California: Sage, 2004), 3-19. 3 Perry, In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes, 7. 4 Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld, Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls, and Controversies (California: Sage, 2004), 11. 5 Rob White and Santina Perrone, ‘Racism, Ethnicity, and Hate Crime’, in Crimes of Hate: Selected Readings, eds. Phyllis. B. Gerstenfeld and Diana R. Grant (California: Sage, 2004), 320. 6 Kellina M. Craig, ‘Retaliation, Fear, or Rage’, in Crimes of Hate: Selected Readings, eds. Phyllis. B. Gerstenfeld and Diana R. Grant (California: Sage, 2004), 58. 7 Carolyn Petrosino, ‘Connecting the Past to the Future’, in Crimes of Hate: Selected Readings, eds. Phyllis. B. Gerstenfeld and Diana R. Grant (California: Sage, 2004), 4. 8 Valerie Jenness and Kendal Broad, Hate Crimes: New Social Movements and the Politics of Violence (New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1997). 9 Ibid., 44. 10 Hannah Mason-Bish, ‘Future Challenges for Hate Crime Policy: Lessons from the Past’, in Hate Crime: Concepts, Policy, Future Directions, ed. Neil Chakraborti (Oregon: Willan Publishing, 2010), 59. 11 James B. Jacobs, ‘The Emergence and Implications of American Hate Jurisprudence’, in Hate Crime: The Global Politics of Polarization, eds. Robert J. Kelly and Jess Maghan (Southern Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998), 155. 12 Donald P. Green, Lawrence H. McFalls and Jennifer K. Smith, ‘Hate Crime: An Emergent Research Agenda’, Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 486. 13 Ibid., 487. 14 Michel Rosenfeld, ‘Hate Speech in Constitutional Jurisprudence: A Comparative Analysis’, in Social Science Research Network, accessed December 6, 2010, http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Chicago-Style-ofReference-1.2d.pdf. 15 Gerstenfeld, Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls, and Controversies, 94. 16 Ibid. 17 Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld, Diana R. Grant and Chau-Pu Chiang, ‘Hate Online? A Content Analysis of Extremist Internet Sites’, in Crimes of Hate: Selected

38


__________________________________________________________________ Readings, eds. Phyllis. B. Gerstenfeld and Diana R. Grant (California: Sage, 2004), 150-151. 18 Paul Bocij and Leroy McFarlane, ‘Cyberstalking: The Technology of Hate’, The Police Journal 76, No. 3 (2003): 204. 19 Michel Rosenfeld, ‘Hate Speech in Constitutional Jurisprudence: A Comparative Analysis’, in The Inaugural Conference of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy (Fundamentalisms, Equalities, and the Challenge to Tolerance in a Post-9/11 Environment, 2003), 4. 20 David P. Farrington, ‘Understanding and Preventing Bullying’, in Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, ed. Michael Tonry (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 17), 382. 21 Heinz Leymann, ‘Mobbing and Psychological Terror at Workplaces’, Violence and Victims 5, No. 2 (1990): 120. 22 ‘Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crime: A Guide for Schools’, accessed December 7, 2010, http://www.wrightslaw.com/pubs/ocr.harassment.pdf. 23 Sharon Schoen and Alexis Schoen, ‘Bullying and Harassment in the United States’, The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies 83, No. 2 (2010). 24 Leymann, Violence and Victims. 25 Barbara Perry and Walter, S. DeKeseredy, ‘Campus Hate Crime: Another Kind of Color Blindness’, American Society of Criminology Conference (2008 Annual Meeting), 1. 26 Bob Morse, Morse Code, U.S. News and World Report, 10 September 2008. 27 Andrew Altman, ‘Liberalism and Campus Hate Speech’, Ethics 103 (1993): 310.

Bibliography Altman, Andrew. ‘Liberalism and Campus Hate Speech’. Ethics 103 (1993): 302– 317. Bocij, Paul, and Leroy McFarlane. ‘Cyberstalking: The Technology of Hate’. The Police Journal 76, No. 3 (2003): 204–221. Craig, Kellina M. ‘Retaliation, Fear, or Rage’. In Crimes of Hate: Selected Readings, edited by Phyllis. B. Gerstenfeld, and Diana R. Grant, 58–66. California: Sage, 2004. Farrington, David P. ‘Understanding and Preventing Bullying’. In Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, edited by Michael Tonry, 381–458. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

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__________________________________________________________________ Gerstenfeld, Phyllis B. Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls, and Controversies. California: Sage, 2011. Gerstenfeld, Phyllis B., Diana R. Grant, and Chau-Pu Chiang. ‘Hate Online? A Content Analysis of Extremist Internet Sites’. In Crimes of Hate: Selected Readings, edited by Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld, and Diana R. Grant, 144–155. California: Sage, 2004. Green, Donald P., Lawrence H. McFalls, and Jennifer K. Smith. ‘Hate Crime: An Emergent Research Agenda’. Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 479–504. Jacobs, James B. ‘The Emergence and Implications of American Hate Jurisprudence’. In Hate Crime: The Global Politics of Polarization, edited by Robert J. Kelly, and Jess Maghan, 150–177. Southern Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998. Jenness, Valerie, and Kendal Broad. Hate Crimes: New Social Movements and the Politics of Violence. New York: Aldine De Gruyter, 1997. Leymann, Heinz. ‘Mobbing and Psychological Terror at Workplaces’. Violence and Victims 5, No. 2 (1990): 119–126. Mason-Bish, Hannah. ‘Future Challenges for Hate Crime Policy: Lessons from the Past’. In Hate Crime: Concepts, Policy, Future Directions, edited by Neil Chakraborti, 58–76. Oregon: Willian Publishing, 2010. Morse, Bob. ‘Morse Code’. U.S. News and World Report, 10 September 2008. Perry, Barbara, and Walter S. DeKeseredy. ‘Hate Crime on Campus: A Pilot Study’. American Society of Criminology Conference. Annual Meeting, 2007. —––. ‘Campus Hate Crime: Another Kind of Color Blindness’. American Society of Criminology Conference. Annual Meeting, 2008. Perry, Barbara. In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes. New York: Routledge, 2001. Petrosino, Carolyn. ‘Connecting the Past to the Future’. In Crimes of Hate: Selected Readings, edited by Barbara B. Gerstenfeld, and Diana R. Grant, 3–19. California: Sage, 2004.

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__________________________________________________________________ Rosenfeld, Michel. ‘Hate Speech in Constitutional Jurisprudence: A Comparative Analysis’. In The Inaugural Conference of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy. Fundamentalisms, Equalities, and the Challenge to Tolerance in a Post-9/11 Environment, 2003, 4. Schoen, Sharon, and Alexis Schoen. ‘Bullying and Harassment in the United States’. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies 83, No. 2 (2010): 37–41. White, Rob, and Santina Perrone. ‘Racism, Ethnicity, and Hate Crime’. In Crimes of Hate: Selected Readings, edited by Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld, and Diana R. Grant, 317–333. California: Sage, 2004. Sevgi Çoban is a scholar at Hacettepe University, Department of Sociology in Turkey.

Violation of Human Rights as a Result of State Failure Anda Taropa-Iacob Abstract This chapter aims to expose the issues related to human rights abuses by describing and analysing the precarious situation of citizens from failed and fragile states. 1 The chapter explains how this negative behaviour leads to the erosion of society and in doing so, it also describes measures which can be taken to control or eliminate these issues. The widespread violation of human rights is an endemic problem, especially in African states, where every day, women are raped, people are tortured, killed or internally displaced and children are used by armed groups. Bullying is a useful tool for intimidating a weaker person, but the dimension of bullying presented here exceeds the simple constructs of conflict or dominance in social environments. This chapter embraces the idea of bullying in wartime and the act of bullying as the cheapest weapon of attack. The study demonstrates that the violation of human rights is a result of state failure by analysing and emphasising the most disturbing events related to this issue, by describing data on social and political indicators and by creating a precise image of the victims of violence. This paper argues that an awareness of these issues is not enough and it offers some solutions for preventing and eliminating these kinds of disasters. In particular, solutions related to social justice and a democratic peace paradigm are highlighted. Also, this research focuses on the situation in Sudan. Key Words: Human rights, bully, violence, Sudan, conflict, victims. ***** 1. Introduction - Understanding State Failure and Bullying The concept of state failure became a subject of mass debate after World War II, when an acute powerlessness overwhelmed the states which emerged from the war. According to Herbst, failed states emerged in the 20th century, after dissolution of empires and decolonisation. 2 Fukuyama claims that after the Cold War, weak and failed states have become, without doubt, the most important problem for international order. 3 Researchers like Sebastian von Einsiedel believe that ‘after years of relative neglect, the events of 11th September 2001 put the issue of failed states firmly at the centre of international attention, invoking terrorism as a creation of failed states.’ 4 State failure represents the incapacity of a state to meet its obligations towards citizens and the entire international community. Failed states are characterised as an implosion of state structure, leading to the inability of governments to exercise their functions, including security, rule of law, the provision of quality services in education and health sector, maintaining the economic infrastructure, border

42

Violation of Human Rights as a Result of State Failure

__________________________________________________________________ control, legitimate institutions and judicial system performance. Failed states have an ineffective government and this affects the entire state structure (population, territory, ability to perform duties related to the international sphere). 5 State weakness is both a matter of capacity and will. Depending on these two variables there are four categories of states: states with relatively good performance, weak states in terms of capacity but who have the will of providing basic political goods, states which have resources, but who do not have enough will, being corrupt and repressive, states with no will and no capacity of realising basic functions of statehood. 6 But how have failed states appeared and how have they managed to become ‘ambassadors of regression’? Firstly, colonialism brought people of different ethnic, political and religious affiliations together to form a state and forge a common sense of citizenship. 7 This ambitious plan was hard to accomplish because after gaining the independence, young states from Africa were not capable of managing their own political systems and the dictatorship was a burden for the citizens from those specific countries. The first type of bully may be identified in the type of government because the dictator of a country is a ‘bully’ for its citizens. People under dictatorship lose their self-esteem and the sense of citizenship and start to think with a captive mind. 8 But the problem of dictatorship is not unique. In failed states, social cohesion is diluted and the rule of law is arbitrary or nonexistent. On the topic of social cohesion, African and Middle East states, embraced a sort of social cohesion called ‘Asabiyyah’ and it which refers to social solidarity with an emphasis on unity, group consciousness, and social cohesion, originally in a context of ‘tribalism’ and ‘clanism.’ 9 The solidarity exists only between the members of a specific group, who are in conflict with another group. The competition for land, resources and domination, have created the factionalised elites, which are the worst bullies in this context. These sorts of groups are ruling elites along ethnic, class, clan, racial or religious lines and have the power for dominating other groups. 10 They are also found in unstable states like Somalia, Sudan, Shad, Central African Republic, Iraq, Syria etc. Another negative phenomenon to emerge from failed and fragile states and an element which encourages bullying behaviour is group paranoia. This negative social phenomenon increases violence and implicitly increases the power of bullies. There is a public scapegoating group believed to have acquired wealth, status or power as evidenced in the emergence of ‘hate’ radio, pamphleteering, and stereotypical or nationalistic political rhetoric. 11 A relevant example in this case is Rwanda, with its genocide from 1994 where the tragedy resulted in 800,00 Tutsis being killed by Hutu clans. 12 The situation demonstrates how Tutsis were the subject of ‘hate speech’ and the manner in which paranoia was implemented by Belgian colonialists in the Hutus’ minds. Another example of group paranoia, where specific groups were singled out by state authorities, or by dominant groups, for persecution or repression, 13 is located in Sudan’s society. In the circumstances of those two civil

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__________________________________________________________________ wars between 1955 and 1972 and between 1983 and 2005, 14 the rivalry between Muslims and Christians continues due to the punitive polity suffered by the Christians and imposed by the Muslim majority. Also, bullying was expressed by labeling the minority formed by Christians and animists as being ‘the savagery.’ Therefore, labeling a person, a group, a community, in a pejorative manner, may be also considered a form of bullying. 2. Bullying in Wartime: The Case of Sudan By definition, bullying is described as a social behaviour which ‘may manifest as abusive treatment, the use of force or coercion to affect others, particularly when habitual and involving an imbalance of power.’ 15 Over time, bullying has become a widespread phenomenon and a topical subject for sociologists. This negative social phenomenon is present at school, in the workplace, in prison and in many social environments. Bullying is also present in wartime, but the consequences of the behaviour are more serious because in most cases, the victims have no way of avoiding the danger or of protecting themselves. In order to highlight the seriousness of this phenomenon in wartime, a case study on Sudan is presented. The reasons for choosing this state are numerous: Sudan is a failed state (3rd place in the Failed State Index 16 ), conflicts are an endemic issue, there is no justice for women, children are forced to join the army and innocent civilians are sentenced to death without trial. Hence, there are a clearly range of bullying victims in Sudan. The results of this analysis present a clearer understanding of the nature of the relationship between state failure and human rights abuses. Table 1 shows the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), 17 refugees, prisoners of conscience, arbitrary detentions and death sentences form Sudan, over a period of five years (2007-2011). These numbers show that people from Sudan are victims in their own country. Table 1 - Number of Human Rights Abuse Victims between 2007 and 2011. 18 2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

IDPs

460,000

485,000

400,000

327,000

N/A

Refugees

222,722

181,605

152,375

520,000

379,067

Prisoners of conscience

91

2

5

7

8

Arbitrary detentions

137

116

220

104

14

Death penalties

N/A

45

53

20

55

44


__________________________________________________________________ People are forced to leave their homes, and in this case, they became IDPs or are forced to flee from their country and became refugees. Due to the attacks of factional groups, many Sudanese are leaving the country but many of them are also killed on their way to another country or safe campus, and women are the main victims. In 2008, several internally displaced women, including teenage girls, were raped as they went outside IDP camps and generally, female genital mutilation is systematically practiced and unfortunately women are subjected to this type of torture. Rape and other violence against women continue to be widespread; they are too weak to protect themselves and the bullies are too strong, armed with a gun in their hand. The question arises as to whether this is the result of individual bullying, or social failure? Prisoners of conscience 19 are the main victims of state authorities and they are also subjected to arbitrary detentions and even death penalties. Most of them are human rights defenders, journalists, activists, lawyers, etc. These people are promoting freedom of expression and they are punished for their activities in the majority of Muslims states. In 2010 The National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), which should be a legitimate institution, serving the state and implicitly its citizens, have detained people arbitrarily and held them incommunicado, particularly in Khartoum and Darfur after the International Criminal Court issued the warrant of arrest for President Al Bashir. NISS personnel raided the offices of several Sudanese NGOs, took away files and arrested some of their staff. In 2011, NISS agents remained immune from prosecution and disciplinary measures for human rights violations. The public order police continued to arrest women, young girls and men in the north, on grounds of ‘indecent’ or ‘immoral’ dress or behaviour, and courts carried out numerous flogging sentences during the year. More restrictions on public behaviour were introduced and the public order police reportedly formed committees to determine criteria for arresting people on the basis of ‘indecent’ public behaviour or dress. 20 Due attention should also be directed to the problem of child soldiers. Some of these voluntarily join the army because they see it as an opportunity to escape from poverty; with working in the army being a source of income. Some of them just stay in the background and take care of the weapons, while others are on the front line and used as ‘bomb-detectors.’ Child soldiers from around the world are involved in government-backed paramilitary groups, militias and self-defense units operating in conflict zones. Others include armed groups opposed to central government rule, groups composed of ethnic religious and other minorities and clan-based or factional groups fighting governments and each other to defend territory and resources. These child soldiers are under the age of 18 and the youngest are 14 years old. In Sudan, the major recruiters are the Sudan Liberation Army, Lord’s Resistance Army, Sudanese Armed Force and South Sudan Defense Force. Not only are boys joining armed groups, even girls are forced to become a

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__________________________________________________________________ part of this terror. Girl soldiers are frequently subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence as well as being involved in combat and other roles. In some cases, they are stigmatised by their home communities when they return. 21 Lately, in the domain of international law, a question has been raised about whether child soldiers should be punished for their crimes? 22 Hence, until now, it has not been established as to whether these children are victims or perpetrators. The Geneva Conventions oblige all member states to act on grave breaches of human rights, but do not stipulate the age of criminal responsibility as a limit of the law on protecting children. ICC’s Article 26 prevents the court from prosecuting anyone under the age of 18, 23 but not because it believes children should be exempt from prosecution for international crimes. Children are recruited in such crimes because they can be easily intimidated and indoctrinated. Hence, they may be considered ‘doli incapax’ because they do not have the capacity to discern the implications of their actions. In some cases they are encouraged to consume alcohol and drugs and are forced by their adult commander into perpetrating atrocities. Therefore, these children are clearly bullied which makes them victims, not criminals. It is thus recommended that, before condemning a child soldier, an investigation should be carried out to determine whether the child was coerced. For this process, a group of social workers and pediatric psychologists is required and if the child is found guilty, they should be tried under the law on juvenile delinquency. 3. A Plan of Social Recovery There are a large number of international organisations which provide assistance for the victims of bullying. However, plans of preventing the phenomenon via internal solutions are hard to implement because leadership is not interested in solving the problem. What is really missing in Sudan and in many other states with social and political problems is a society that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, which understands and values human rights. Returning to the case of Sudan, the Sudanese government needs a campaign of awareness of the importance of respecting human rights and gender equality. This mission can be accomplished with the United Nation’s help and with the assistance of others international organisations, like Refugee International, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, etc. At the political level, Sudan needs a real democracy. States in which citizens are victims of terror are called ‘over-extended’ states. 24 A political system should not be related to a collective violence and war. Political violence is highly assimilated by citizens in states with a low level of security. Therefore, implementing democracy is the best solution in this context, because its absence causes social anomy. Democracy is not an infallible method of government, but so far has proved to be better justified than dictatorship. Rudolph Rummel explains the idea of a democratic peace paradigm as:

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__________________________________________________________________ Democratically free people are spontaneous, diverse and pluralistic. They have many, often opposing, interest pushing them one way or another. They belong to independent and overlapping occupational, religious recreational and political subgroups, each involving its own interest and then they are moved by the separate and even antagonistic desires of different age, sex, ethnic, racial and religion strata. 25 Even if the democratic peace theory is discussed only in the context of international relations, it can be also applied in states socially stratified in terms of ethnic, religious or political affiliations. The virtual borders between groups form failed or fragile states like Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Somalia, Chad and predispose those specific groups to civil war and separation. In states where citizens have different opinions regarding the rule of law and power sharing, the democratic peace paradigm is vital. The failure or the fragility of states is also caused by external actors, or by the geopolitical position. Sudan failed in keeping its good relations with the neighbors, being involved in large conflicts with Chad. Also, Syria is another state which is feeding its failure by deteriorating its foreign relations. The past conflicts with Iraq and Israel prove the inability of a weak state in providing security and the strong propensity for an impenetrable pan-Arabism. The Sudanese people need a culture of democracy so they can be aware of the fact that they deserve more than violence and fear and that every community has values, norms and rights. And above all, they need resources. Poverty is always an indicator for assessing the economy or the level of social welfare and is also a determinant of social failure. It is self-evident that prosperous states with democratic governments have a greater respect for human rights than authoritarian regimes from poor countries. Therefore, the anarchy, the social anomy and the human rights abuses are also a result of economic decline and the material status is sometimes beyond ethnicity or politics. 4. Conclusions The study focused on analysing two political and social indicators, which are the arbitrary application of rule of law and widespread violation of human rights. Widespread abuse of legal, political and social rights, including those of individuals, groups and institutions is a concern of the international community but unfortunately it proves that global solidarity sometimes can be too weak in the face of massive abuses of power. The situation is clear: in fragile states the power is shared among leaders and innocent civilians are transformed as victims of their own country, so they lose their sense of citizenship and also the trust in their fellow citizens. They seek to survive using dangerous strategies such as house-to-house searching, bombardments, looting, etc. Thus, a process of dissolution of solidarity occurs.

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__________________________________________________________________ The governments from failed states are the enemies for the people and the abuse of power by leadership often occurs. The political pluralism declared by authoritarian states is a cynical way of displaying a fake image of democracy, which is totally non-existent in these states. The prisoners of conscience, raped women, child-soldiers, dissent and other victims of human rights abuses will never disappear from the landscape of failed states and the international community responsible for promoting and protecting human rights are somewhat limited. The United Nations Security Council should increase the number of permanent members in order to expand the power among ‘perpetrator-states.’ And there is also a paradox regarding the United Nations (UN) membership: a U.N. member state should respect all the purposes and principles stipulated in the Charter of the United Nations and when it fails to comply with these, it should be punished. Although the international community is rather inert, at the same time, international organisations deserve respect for helping people from unstable countries. However, how can a state be a perpetrator of human atrocities and a U.N. member at the same time? There are many campaigns against violence, raping women, using children as soldiers etc. but the situation stagnates. Hence, there are many well-intended and constructive initiatives, but we will never know their effectiveness when it comes to fighting tyranny. And when tyranny is caused by external factors, the situation seems to be caught in the web of conspiracy, and this is another discussion which belongs to the ‘pseudo-scientific’ research. Based on these observations, in future, the violation of human rights as a result of state failure requires empirical study and critical analysis.

Notes 1

This work was supported by the European Social Fund in Romania, under the responsibility of the Managing Authority for the Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013 [grant POSDRU/CPP 107/DMI 1.5/S/78342]. 2 Jeffrey Herbst, ‘Let Them Fail: State Failure in Theory and Practice’, in When States Fail: Causes and Consequences, ed. Robert Rotberg (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 304. 3 Francis Fukuyama, Construcţia Statelor - Ordine Mondială în Secolul XXI (New York: Cornell University Press, 2005), 58. 4 Sebastian von Einsiedel, ‘Policy Responses to State Failure’, in Making States Work: State Failure and the Crisis of Governance, eds. Simon Chesterman, Michael Ignatieff and Ramesh Thakur (New York: United Nations University Press, 2005), 13.

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Chiara Giorgetti, A Principled Approach to State Failure (Boston: Koninklijke Brill: 2010), 43-44. 6 Patrick Stewart, ‘Weak States and Global Threats: Fact or Fiction?’, The Washington Quarterly 29 (2006): 27-32. 7 Charles Alao, ‘The Problem of the Failed State in Africa’, in International Security Management and the United Nations, eds. Muthiah Alagappa and Takashi Inoguchi (Tokyo, 1999), 83-90. 8 This concept was first used by Czesław Miłosz, in his book ‘The Captive Mind’ and it refers to the enslavement through consciousness and is a result of the dictatorial regime. 9 Shelagh Weir, A Tribal Order (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007), 191. 10 Pauline Baker, The Conflict Assessment System Tool (Washington: The Fund for Peace, 2006), 11. 11 Baker, The Conflict Assessment System Tool, 9. 12 ‘Rwanda: How the Genocide Happened’, last modified 18 December 2008, accessed October 14, 2011, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1288230.stm. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibrahim Elnur, Contested Sudan. The Political Economy of War and Reconstruction (New York: Routledge, 2009), 36. 15 Merriam-Webster, ‘Definition of Bully’, accessed September 5, 2011, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bullying. 16 ‘Failed State Index’, accessed September 5, 2011, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/17/2011_failed_states_index_intera ctive_map_and_rankings. 17 Internally Displaced Persons represents a group of persons which are forced by circumstances to leave their households, their home, due to the attacks and robberies from a specific area. 18 The numbers from the table are a statistic compilation, the data were collected from various websites of news and international NGOs, as well as reports made by intergovernmental organisations: http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/sudan/report-2010#, http://www.internaldisplacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpCountries)/F3D3C AA7CBEBE276802570A7004B87E4?OpenDocument, http://www.refintl.org/where-we-work/africa/sudan, http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home. 19 The term ‘prisoner of conscience’ was defined by Peter Bensons and may be translated to persons imprisoned due to their affiliation or preference for a specific race, ethnic group, religion or political party.

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__________________________________________________________________ 20

All these information regarding the human rights abuses are collected form the website http://www.amnesty.org/en, which belongs to the human rights group Amnesty International. 21 ‘Child Soldiers Global Report 2008’, accessed September 5, 2011, http://www.childsoldiersglobalreport.org/content/sudan-0. 22 ‘Analysis: Should Child Soldiers Be Prosecuted for Their Crimes?’, accessed September 15, 2011, http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93900. 23 ‘International Criminal Court and Children Rights’, accessed September 25, 2011, http://www.iccnow.org/documents/FS-AMICC-ICCnChildRights.pdf. 24 Petre Wallensteen, ‘State Failure, Ethnocracy and Democracy: New Conceptions of Governance’, paper presented at the Failed States Conference, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 25-27 February 1998. 25 Rudolph Rummel, ‘Political Systems, Violence, and War’, in Approaches to Peace: An Intellectual Map, eds. Scott Thompson and Kenneth M. Jensen (Washington: United States Institute of Peace, 1991), 347.

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__________________________________________________________________ Zajda, Joseph, Suzanne Majhanovich, and Val Rust. Education and Social Justice. Dordrecth: Springer, 2006, Amnesty International Website. Accessed September 5, 2011. http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/sudan/report-2010#. Anda Taropa-Iacob is a PhD student at ‘Alexandru Ioan Cuza’ University of Iassy, Faculty of Philosophy and Social and Political Sciences. Her research is based on exploration the state fragility as a political pathology.