School Bullying: Exploring Juvenile Victimization Trends with the NCVS School Crime Supplement (NCVS-SCS)

Bullying is broadly defined as the act of repeatedly exercising superior strength or social capital to intimidate an individual or group and is enacted by different modes. This research is the first to distinguish between traditional modes (direct and indirect bullying) and contemporary modes (cyberbullying) of bully victimization using the National Crime Victimization Survey’s School Crime Supplement (NCVS-SCS). While establishing new conceptual criterias for defining bullying modes, the study explores the relationship between demographic variables (i.e., agre, gender, and race), socioeconomic disadvantage (i.e., hate words present on school premises, households earning less than $25,000 per year, perceptions of controlled substance availability at school, and school type), and situational characteristics with their effect on the odds of bully victimization. Situational characteristics are operationally defined as measurements for general strain (i.e., hate words aimed at the student and school safety measurements), social control (i.e., academic achievement and school staff bonding), and routine activities (i.e., extracurricular participation). Results of the study challenge past findings about the relationship between race and bullying victimization, as well as the social benefits of extracurricular participation. Non-Hispanic white students are more likely to be bullied directly, indirectly, and online than are other racial/ethnic groups, and despite the commonly attributed benefit of extracurricular activity, participation is actually associated with higher likelihoods of direct, indirect, and cyberbullying. Also, female students, who have largely been victims of indirect and cyberbullying, have greater odds of being victims of direct bullying after controlling for socioeconomic disadvantage and situational characteristics. Finally, the new criteria for defining traditional and contemporary modes of bullying contribute to the topic of victimization by depicting trends unique to cyberbullying, establishing it as a contemporary mode of bullying and not a subsidiary to indirect bullying