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Bullying, Cyberbullying, Hate Crimes, Invasion of Privacy and Tolerance

Randall Library joins with the greater University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) community in promoting tolerance and diversity and opposing bullying and harassment. The home page on Diversity at UNCW web site includes the following statement: “In the pursuit of excellence, the University of North Carolina Wilmington actively fosters, encourages, and promotes inclusiveness, mutual respect, acceptance, and open-mindedness among students, faculty, staff, and the broader community.” 1

UNCW promotes those efforts through its standing committees such as the Student Affairs Diversity Committee, its Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion and educational programming and outreach efforts. The University also promotes these efforts through its administrative policies, such as Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action, the Harassment Prevention Policy, and the Seahawk Respect Compact.

The Library supports the mission of the University by “providing information resources and learner-centered services and by cultivating a rich physical and virtual environment dedicated to the open exchange of ideas and an information-literate community.” 2 The Library’s core values - - learning, service, access, integrity and diversity, echo the University’s.

This guide provides selective information and resources about bullying, cyberbullying, hate crimes, the invasion of privacy and tolerance. Included here are definitions, links to campus and local resources, and links to reliable information about the issues. Information about finding and getting materials comes next - - searching for books, articles, data, videos, and even searching the blog-o-sphere. The guide concludes with a numbers for select crisis hotlines and networks.

Starting Points
Definitions

Bullying
 “the act of intimidating a weaker person to make them do something”3

Cyberbullying
“Cyberbullying is the term used for the new, and growing, practice of using technology (internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones) to harass, or bully, someone else. Bullies used to be restricted to methods such as physical intimidation, postal mail, or the telephone. Now, developments in electronic media offer forums such as email, instant messaging, web pages, and digital photos to add to the arsenal. Computers, cell phones, and PDAs are new tools that can be applied to an old practice.

Forms of cyberbullying can range in severity from cruel or embarrassing rumors to threats, harassment, or stalking. It can affect any age group; however, teenagers and young adults are common victims, and cyberbullying is a growing problem in schools. Many cases of Cyber Bullying have lead to youth suicide.
There are two kinds of cyberbullying, direct attacks (messages sent to your kids directly) and cyberbullying by proxy (using others to help cyberbully the victim, either with or without the accomplice's knowledge). Because cyberbullying by proxy often gets adults involved in the harassment, it is much more dangerous.” 4

Hate crime
“A hate crime is usually defined by state law as one that involves threats, harassment, or physical harm and is motivated by prejudice against someone's race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation or physical or mental disability. Laws vary by state and if hate crimes are provided for by statute, the definitions of hate crimes and penalties imposed vary.”5

Invasion of Privacy
“Invasion of privacy is the intrusion into the personal life of another, without just cause, which can give the person whose privacy has been invaded a right to bring a lawsuit for damages against the person or entity that intruded. It encompasses workplace monitoring, Internet privacy, data collection, and other means of disseminating private information.”6

Tolerance
“The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.” 7
 

Sources

  1. http://www.uncw.edu/diversity/diversity.html (accessed October 6, 2010)
  2. Approved by the Library Faculty, May 20, 2009; http://library.uncw.edu/about_library (accessed October 5, 2010)
  3. http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/bullying (accessed October 6, 2010)
  4. http://www.how-to-stop-bullying.com/cyberbullying.html (accessed October 2, 2010). For a more complete definition of cyberbullying, see http://www.how-to-stop-bullying.com/cyberbullying.html (accessed October 2, 2010)
  5. http://definitions.uslegal.com/h/hate-crime/ (accessed October 6, 2010)
  6. http://definitions.uslegal.com/i/invasion-of-privacy/ (accessed October 6, 2010)
  7. http://www.answers.com/topic/tolerance (accessed October 6, 2010)
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