Explaining Physical Bullying in Chinese Middle Schools

ABSTRACT

Most studies of school bullying in China are atheoretical. To fill the gap in the literature, we introduce criminological theories in an attempt to test propositions broadly derived from these perspectives in the study of physical bullying. Relying on data collected from 12 middle schools (Grades 7 to 9) in three cities with information on both physical bullying victimization and perpetration, we hypothesize that there is a relationship between victims and offenders, and that models predicting bullying perpetration would also account for bullying victimization, but the variable strengths may vary. Results are mixed. Those who reported being a victim of bullying in the past 6 months and those who were bullies were significantly correlated. However, the variables from the social bond perspective cannot account for the bullying perpetration once the variables from the subcultural perspective are introduced, while two of them are capable of explaining victimization. Two variables from the subcultural perspective seem to account for both bullying victimization and perpetration, but the strength of deviance in the model of perpetration is significantly stronger than its strength in the victimization model.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• offender-victim overlap
• physical bullying
• strain/bond perspective
• subcultural perspective

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. A person’s criminal activity represented a form of lifestyle (Hindelang, 1976) that carries a high risk of victimization or it risked retaliation from former victims (Wolfgang & Ferracuti, 1967). In Sampson and Lauritsen’s study (Sampson & Lauritsen, 1990), violent offending was regarded as an independent variable, and victimization as the dependent variable. It is concluded that violent offending results in more frequent victimization.

2. Among 337 cities in China, there are five tiers based on population size, consumer sophistication, income level, infrastructure, talent pool, and business opportunity. Nineteen cities belong to Tier 1 cities – largest and economically most developed; 30 belong to Tier 2 cities; 70 belong to Tier 3; and 90 and 128 belong to Tiers 4, and 5 – the less developed with smaller population sizes. No cities from Tier 4 and Tier 5 were selected. In addition, educational systems are stratified within each city, resulting in the hierarchical order of urban schools with best equipment and teaching staffs, urban-suburban schools, and rural schools – poorly equipped in terms of facilities and teaching staffs.

3. The only way to make the skewness index within the normal distribution is to use the reverse transformation (skewness index = −.804). The problem is that this would change the sign of the index from being positive to being negative. The robust test indicates that neither reverse transformation nor the log transformation would affect any correlations and we decided to use log transformation for the sake of consistency and easier interpretation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jinlu Sun

Jinlu Sun, Ph.D. (2018), is an assistant professor of Humanities and Social Sciences (School of Public Administration) at Beihang University. Her research interests include criminal psychology, school bullying, and criminological theory.

Liqun Cao

Liqun Cao, Ph.D. (1993), is Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Ontario Tech University, Canada. His research interests include comparative studies, criminological theory, minority-majority relationship, and policing. His research essays have appeared in numerous national and international journals. In addition, Prof. Cao published a monograph “Major Criminological Theories: Concepts and Measurement” and a co-edited book “Lessons From International/Comparative Criminology/Criminal Justice” in 2004. He coauthored “Policing in Taiwan: From Authoritarianism to Democracy” and co-edited “Routledge Handbook of Chinese Criminology” in 2014. He has three coauthored criminological books in Chinese. He was the founding president of Association of Chinese Criminology and Criminal Justice.