A child is a victim of peer violence if he or she has been exposed to aggressive behaviour and abuse of power by a peer or group of peers over a long period of time. Violence causes a number of consequences for the child, as it gradually begins to have a destructive impact on his or her academic performance, social inclusion and health. Through the use of the term victim we do not mean, that a child experiencing peer violence is completely helpless, powerless and energy, because a victim of violence usually needs a lot of strength to survive and to cope with violence on a daily basis. Therefore, a more appropriate term would be a child who has experienced. The term victim is used because it is simpler, more familiar and widespread.
A perpetrator of peer violence is a child who has a long history of violence against others and abuses his or her physical, mental, sexual or material superiority. In the process of bullying and controlling the peer, the peer becomes more and more powerful, leading to a growing power imbalance.
Bystanders are children who perceive peer violence, directly observe it or even encourage it to continue, do not actively intervene in it, and do not perpetrate it, and do not protect the victim. The reasons for this behaviour are varied: fear the perpetrator, not wanting to expose themselves, not trusting adults to stop the violence, bad experiences in the past, thinking it is not their problem, silence, fear of the perpetrator, fear of the perpetrator, fear of the perpetrator, fear of the perpetrator, fear of the perpetrator, fear of the perpetrator, fear of the perpetrator identification with the perpetrator, etc.
Children who are in both roles, once as victims and once as perpetrators of violence, are not rare. Being victimised at school increases the likelihood that the child victim will eventually start to behave violently themselves. Victims react differently to violence; some children choose to retaliate violently. Chronic cycles of violence are known, whereby the experience of violence and violent retaliation alternate in an increasingly destructive spiral.
RESOURCES AND LITERATURE:
- PROTOKOLI ZA RAVNANJE. MEDVRSTNIŠKO NASILJE: https://www.gov.si/assets/ministrstva/MVI/SRI/NASILJE/Protokol_medvrstnisko_nasilje.pdf
- KAKO DO SPODBUDNEGA IN VARNEGA UČNEGA OKOLJA?
- https://www.gov.si/assets/ministrstva/MVI/SRI/NASILJE/Kako-do-spodbudnega-in-varnega-ucnega-okolja.pdf
- NAVODILA S PRIROČNIKOM ZA OBRAVNAVO MEDVRSTNIŠKEGA NASILJA V VZGOJNOIZOBRAŽEVALNIH ZAVODIH: https://www.zrss.si/digitalnaknjiznica/navodila-medvrstnisko-nasilje-viz-2016/files/assets/common/downloads/publication.pdf