Behaviors in Bullying

In colloquial speech, bullying is most often used to describe a form of harassment perpetrated by a child who is in any way more powerful upon weaker peers. Researchers accept generally that bullying contains three essential elements:

The behavior is aggressive and negative
The behavior is carried out repeatedly
The behavior occurs in a relationship where there is an imbalance of power between the parties involved

Bullying can occur in situations including in school or college/university, the workplace, by neighbors, and between countries. Whatever the situation the power structure is typically evident between the bully and victim. It seems to those outside the relationship that the bully's power depends only upon the perception of the victim, with the victim being too intimidated to put up effective resistance. However the victim usually has just cause to be afraid of the bully due to the threat and actually carrying out of physical/sexual violence, or loss of livelihood. Bullying is behind most claims of discrimination in the workplace.