Why Punishment Won't Stop a Bully
Punitive discipline for bullies can be counterproductive
Bullying at school has attracted an enormous amount of attention, spurring academic studies and popular books, regulations, and training sessions for educators. By now its status as a serious problem is widely acknowledged, as it should be. We can never go back to the days when bullying was regarded as a boys-will-be-boys rite of passage, something that victims were left to deal with (and suffer from) alone.
But as with other ills, both within and beyond our schools, some responses are much less constructive than others. The least thoughtful (or useful) strategy is to announce a "zero tolerance" stance on bullying. Either this phrase amounts to empty rhetoric—rather like responding to repeated instances of gun violence in our country by sending each cluster of victims our "thoughts and prayers"—or else it refers to a policy of harsh punishment for bullies.
The latter approach is worth our attention precisely because it comes so easily to us, complementing a punitive sensibility already well-established in our schools. Students who break the rules or otherwise displease us are subjected to suspension, expulsion, detention, enforced isolation ("time-out"), loss of opportunity to participate in enjoyable activities, and so on.
—André Da Loba
Making children suffer for what they've done is often defended on practical grounds, but I've been unable to find any evidence to support the claim that punishment makes schools safer or leads the children who have been punished to become more ethical or responsible. Indeed, punitive responses—even if they're euphemistically called "consequences"—are often not merely ineffective but actively counterproductive. To cite only one in a long line of empirical investigations, an eight-year longitudinal study published in 2005 found that punitive discipline was subsequently associated with more antisocial behavior, less prosocial behavior, and increased levels of anxiety.
Interestingly, when many proponents of traditional discipline are presented with such evidence, they simply pivot to a very different defense, one that can't be dislodged with evidence: They insist that if someone does something bad, something bad must be done to that person. He or she must be "held accountable"; a consequence must be imposed for moral reasons, even if there are no practical benefits.
But the effects of punishment do matter, and where bullying is concerned, they suggest a painful irony: Punishing kids who bully not only fails to address the source of the problem, but actually makes things worse. As educator and author Barbara Coloroso pointed out in her book The Bully, The Bullied, and the Bystander, punishment teaches the bully "to be more aggressive and hurtful. He will undoubtedly master the art of doing his bullying in ways that are sneaky or 'under the radar' of even the most observant and aware adults. More important," she adds, "punishment degrades, humiliates, and dehumanizes the children who are its objects. (Sounds like bullying to me.)"
"Punishment in general is likely a hidden contributor to bullying, both because of what it models and because of its effects on the students who are punished."
Decades' worth of research shows that punishment—even when it doesn't include physical force—promotes aggression. But studies conducted in the United States and in Sweden revealed another layer to that reality: Bullies in particular are more likely to have been raised by authoritarian parents who rely on punishment. Dan Olweus, a leading authority on the subject, conducted the latter study. He, like other critics of punishment, has offered suggestions for what can curb bullying. The key is to "restructure the social environment"—the entire school culture—rather than trying to target individual students by encouraging intervention by bystanders, offering advice to potential victims, or, worst of all, punishing bullies.
It's easy to assume that punitive discipline is an inevitable part of school life. That Why Punishment Won't Stop a Bully - Education Week: