1. Working directly with bullies can be challenging. Issues are complex, causes may be deep-rooted and progress can be slow. Current thinking is that it is smart and effective to work more directly with those who stand around and let it happen. If you can change the behaviour of bystanders, you can make bullying incidents less likely.
2. The results from research are quite startling. According to the Anti-Bullying Alliance, most bullying takes place with bystanders present. If peers intervene, nearly 60 per cent of the time the bullying will stop in less than 10 seconds. So why don't they get involved? There's no easy answer. It might be because they are themselves afraid of being picked on. Or they rationalise it saying it's only a bit of fun, or it will go away if you ignore it. Sometimes they feel the person "deserves it". All these can be explored.
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