Essay Example on Effects of hazing bullying and Harassment

In today's society we continue to hear about the effects of hazing bullying and harassment among college students There are questions as whether there has been an increase in exposure or intensity in the recent years Although such topics has been a focus of research for years such victimization and the negative consequences that are associated with such behaviors has been receiving more attention from the media and policy makers in the last couple years For the purpose of this paper Hazing is defined as the action of hazing especially an initiation process involving harassment Merriam Webster Dictionary n d Hazing is classified differently than bullying however the same power of dynamics are involved The only real difference between hazing and bullying is that bullying usually involves singling out an individual at any time and bullying them as a means to exclude them not for initiation purposes Hazing can be seen throughout many different social facets especially among college students and their initiations into different fraternities and sororities Many times the initiations can come in the form of fairly non threatening pranks to patterns of behaviors that lead to the level of abuse and criminal misconduct In all cases hazing is prohibited by law and is prohibited by institutions and colleges because of the severe physical and psychological abuse that can occur However this does not stop college athletic teams fraternities and sororities from having new recruits participate in what most call Hell Night or in prolonged circumstances 

Hell Week In some incidents Hazing resembles what using to be called fagging which was a traditional practice in British Boarding schools in the mid to late 1800 s Encyclopedia Britannica 2017 In similar cases young children were the servants to the older students within the boarding school and what started as running errands and completing chores quickly turned into harassment humiliation and abuse Although fagging was stopped in the late 1800 s throughout private schools in Britain it still continued throughout different arenas and developing into something much more intense and cruel In 2008 a study was completed by Mary Madden PH D and Elizabeth Allen PH D called Hazing in View College Students at Risk at the time it was considered one of the most comprehensive pieces of literature on the subject The authors felt that hazing was such an important topic to raise awareness around and that there was not enough research or literature on the subject that fully shed light on the negative consequences of hazing In their study they interviewed and surveyed over 11 000 undergraduate college students throughout the United States Their findings were astounding they reported that 55 of college students involved in clubs teams and organizations experience hazing That hazing occurs in but extends beyond varsity athletics and Greek letter organizations and includes behaviors that are abusive dangerous and potentially illegal 

 For individuals that have been previously bullied while attending junior highs it may be important for them to feel valued and accepted During participation of the activities new and prospective members are willing to endure high levels of humiliation of abuse for small rewards Cimino 2011 also points out that fraternities and sororities often spread out their hazing events the time between allows prospective members to back out from the group entirely while those who do not show their continued commitment to the pledges At a general level this somehow creates group cohesion and allows for group survival For some they feel that benefits far outweigh the negatives and are willing to endure hazing in order to gain acceptance group identification and protection from non group members Diamond Callahan Chain and Solomon 2015 Another large arena that allows for hazing is in sports at a collegiate level 80 of National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes have experienced some sort of hazing throughout their college athletic career Diamond et al 2015 Many of who have experienced it report that often the hazing occurred during team initiations and common hazing practices included three main categories physical psychological and alcohol related Teams are built on unity in collegiate sports it is thought that the biases behind hazing and the lack of perception of its occurrence is rooted in the athlete s attempt to demonstrate self worth dedication and willingness to make sacrifices for team by their participation in the hazing events Diamond et al 2015