ABSTRACT
People do not naturally empathise with the bully and any tendency to show concern for the bully’s emotional state is understandably likely to be met with criticism on the part of the targets of bullying and by those who support and defend victims. In fact, expressions of vengeance are increasingly apparent in the media. Particularly in the context of cyberbullying, public shaming of bullies is becoming more common through such operations as OpAntiBully as a means of seeking justice for victims and revenge on the perpetrators. As Stroud (2016) proposes, such approaches demonstrate the philosophy that you need to ‘be a bully to beat a bully’, raising a myriad of ethical considerations. Furthermore, the emotional difficulties of children who bully their peers at school are seldom taken into account in the design of interventions to resolve the issue. Yet, if we are to develop effective strategies for addressing the problem, it is essential to understand the processes and prior experiences that lead a child to engage in bullying behaviour. In this chapter, we focus on research about the mental health and emotional needs of children and young people who bully, and consider some of the interventions derived from this knowledge.
