Parts of this article are based on information from the Center for Public Health Law Research at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. [AB1]
Bullying is one of the most common forms of youth violence and is associated with myriad adverse consequences over the life course. In the short term, it can lead to physical injury, social problems, emotional problems and even death and in the long term, it can increase risk for substance use, academic problems, and violence to others later in life. The onus to protect our future generation falls on our leaders both in government and in our schools.
To understand the state of our nation in their efforts to stop bullying, Marizen Ramirez, PhD, professor of environmental and occupational health and associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion at UC Irvine’s Program in Public Health and collaborators created the largest, most comprehensive legal dataset of anti-bullying legislation in the U.S. [AB2]
According to the findings published in the Journal Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, between 1999 and 2017, every state has passed a law addressing bullying, and 90% of those states amended their laws to address the evolving context. While all states now have anti-bullying laws, it took nearly 16 years from the time the first state (Georgia) passed its anti-bullying law to total coverage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia (Kentucky was the last in 2014). Thirty-eight states passed their anti-bullying law between 1999 and 2009, and 12 states passed their laws in 2009 or later. The data captures the landscape before the COVID pandemic and current research (as of 2021) is showing that the disruption of the pandemic is possibly related to a decline in face-to-face bullying. The data provides a blueprint for further tracking of these laws to fully understand the impacts of the pandemic on bullying rates.
By tracking policy changes and improvements over time, we can ultimately determine what works and what doesn’t work in reducing bullying and its adverse effects on children. This type of information is exactly what schools and state departments of education need.”
– Marizen Ramirez, PhD
“Cyberbullying – a relatively new form of bullying that occurs in cyber space – has been increasing in recent years. Our data offers a more holistic picture of the landscape of legal efforts to prevent bullying and support those who have been bullied. As communications technology advances and internet culture evolves, this research proves that we need to continue our research to adapt to the times,” Ramirez said.
Another key observation from the data set is the lack of support for policy training and prevention programs. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia included policy training in their laws as of 2017, but only two of those states, Nevada and New Jersey, include a funding provision explicitly for policy training. Only 12 states as of 2017 had a funding provision at all that would financially support policy training and prevention programs.
“Policies play a role in prevention, and this dataset, which captures 18 years of anti-bullying legislation, provides insight into what is covered under state anti-bullying laws,” Ramirez said. “By tracking policy changes and improvements over time, we can ultimately determine what works and what doesn’t work in reducing bullying and its adverse effects on children. This type of information is exactly what schools and state departments of education need.”
Additional authors include Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, PhD, from Harvard University; Lindsay K. Cloud, JD, Amy Cook, JD, and Scott Burris, JD, from Temple University; Katherine Lymn and Andrew Ryan from University of Minnesota.
This research was funded by the National Center for Injury Control and Prevention (Grant #R01CE002913).
The anti-bullying policies dataset is available for public viewing on https://lawatlas.org/datasets/anti-bullying-laws-new.
