Anti-Bully Legislation: Effects for Youth in United States Schools

Abstract

This study explores the effects of state-level anti-bullying legislation on bullying outcomes for youth in United States schools. Bullying receives national level attention in the United States on an almost daily basis, spurred in part by the exponential increase in use of social media and the internet by youth, as well as several high-profile bullying suicide cases. Because of the multitude of concerns surrounding bullying for both victims and perpetrators, all fifty state legislatures in the U.S. have adopted policies and laws with the goal of decreasing bullying behaviors. This paper finds decreases in bullying outcomes for youth when legislation is in place, though the relationships are modest and not significant. Inquiries about the exact mechanisms by which bullying outcomes are reduced and potential research questions in the area of bullying as well as research and policy implications of the study are discussed.

Keywords:

• Bullying
• legislation
• school bullying
• schools
• youth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 StopBullying.gov. (n.d.). Laws, policies, & regulations. Retrieved from https://www.stopbullying.gov/resources/laws

2 Stopbullying.gov. (n.d.). What Is Bullying. Retrieved from https://www.stopbullying.gov/what-is-bullying/index.html

3 The questions on the YRBSS do not specify what “counts” as a weapon. We may see this result if females are bringing mace/pepper spray to school and reporting that as a weapon, for example, which may indicate different safety issues or the need for young girls to be prepared/cautious.

4 Cyberbullying.org. (n.d.). Bullying laws across America. Retrieved from https://cyberbullying.org/bullying-laws.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heather Prince

Heather Prince earned her Bachelors Degree from Albright College in 2017, her Masters of Science in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018, and she is currently in the department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. She is a PhD student and serves as a research assistant for the Center for Evidence Based Crime Policy. Her research interests include policing, law and society, juvenile crime, school crime, and bullying.