Bullies and Victims Bullying perpetration and victimization was
brought to the attention of U.S. researchers by Dan Olweus, who
spearheaded a nationwide Scandinavian campaign against bullying.
Referring to bullies as “whipping boys” in the 1970s, Olweus set
forth the following definition of bullying that continued to be
consistently used into the early 2000s: “A student is being
bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and
over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more
students” (Olweus, 1993, p. 318). It often involves an imbalance
of strength and power between the bully and the target and is
repetitive in nature. Children and adolescents may experience
isolated acts of aggression, but children who have been bullied
live with the ongoing fear of the recurring abuse from the
bully, which is usually more damaging than an isolated and
unpredicted aggressive event. In the late 1990s and early 2000s,
scholars have recognized that bullying can be verbal, physical,
and social in nature