This thesis explores the extent and nature of aggressive behaviour engaged in by young people. This is accomplished by focusing on two areas: school bullying amongst pupils and physical fighting – specifically amongst young women. It is speculated that bullying as one form of aggressive behaviour that young people engage in, is extremely commonplace. Furthermore, it is predicted that young women do engage in physically aggressive behaviour, both physical bullying and fighting, but they may be socialised out of this behaviour towards the end of their school careers. It is hypothesised that social pressures exerted on them led them to ‘swap’ aggression for femininity. The research hypotheses are examined using two data sources. These were 957 pupils at two secondary schools, and 31 young women from two further education colleges. The school pupils each completed a victimisation and self-report bullying questionnaire. The young women students were engaged in an in-depth interview which sought to find out about their experiences of aggressive behaviour, both as victims and perpetrators. The data found that various forms of bullying and harassment occur frequently in the lives of young people. These include verbal, exclusionary, intimidatory and physical types of bullying, as well as racial bullying and sexual bullying. Similarly, physical bullying and fighting amongst girls was reported, although limited support was found for the hypothesis that young women ‘grow out’ of using physical aggression. Further analysis of the data indicated that young people justify and sanction much aggressive behaviour amongst peers. Using concepts derived from the disciplines of ethology, criminology and victimology, a framework is presented which conceptualises this aggressive behaviour by young people as ‘normal’ everyday behaviour. The implications of this for prevention and future research are discussed.

Over the past decade sexual harassment has become a focus of international research. Although educational studies have shown that it is common in secondary schools, there is a lack of empirical research that explores the potential for sexual harassment amongst children at younger ages. This pioneering study used qualitative methods, including observations and interviews with parents and teachers, to examine the concept of sexual harassment amongst children age 4 to 7.5 years in three educational settings in Israel.  The goal was to establish whether sexual harassment occurs in Israeli pre-school settings and, if so, to evaluate the extent of the phenomenon and to understand its importance amongst practitioners and parents. The study found that sexual harassment is a feature of life amongst young children, and that it generally begins with boys crossing of so-called ‘gender borders’ (Throne, 1993).  Thus, this study sought to redress the balance by illustrating how heterosexuality is part of the everyday experience of primary school children. Harassing boys seek to demonstrate power and to gain status amongst their peers, and usually act in informal situations where adult supervision is lacking.  Young boys who harass are in the process of constructing their masculinities within a specific site (Skelton, 2001). Parents showed strong reactions to sexual harassment amongst young children, especially fathers to girls.  Teachers responded to a year of observations and discussion by developing further awareness of sexual harassment and ways to deal with it. Harassing behaviour is likely to be influenced by the prevalent familial and social norms in society.  Harassing boys appear to imitate both adults behaviour and patterns they absorb from the media.

Four studies examined the investigative interviewing of children. Their purpose was to consider the way that children are interviewed, particularly about suspected sexual abuse, so that broader contextual factors were explicitly taken into account. To facilitate the research, an ecological framework was adopted. This stressed the importance of obtaining children’s views and relating findings to the child’s position, and of studying investigative interviewing in a wider practice and policy context than has previously taken place. In the first study, children who had been the subject of an investigative interview for sexual abuse participated in indepth interviews. The second experiment contrasted child and adult interviewers finding out what had happened during a videotaped event. Children’s help-seeking behaviour in relation to bullying and parental arguing was explored through a questionnaire in the third study. Finally, training on the Memorandum of Good Practice in Area Child Protection Committees (ACPCs) was surveyed via a questionnaire. Findings from the first and final studies suggested that the Memorandum is too heavily evidential at the expense of children’s welfare. In practice, investigative interviews resemble interrogations, rather than opportunities for children to talk about problems. The studies of children’s help-seeking, and their experiences of investigative interviews, contained a number of pointers for individual practitioners. In particular, children want supportive and empathic professionals. However, the need to reconsider children’s social networks in relation to professional intervention was highlighted by the absence of professional helpers chosen to assist with interpersonal problems. The value of interviewer training was emphasised by the study of children-as-interviewers and the survey of ACPCs’ training. The research demonstrated the importance of considering the wider context of investigative interviewing, and specifically the influence of the criminal justice system. The ecological approach proved a valuable framework, but the problems of researching macro-level systems and power structures remain.

This thesis reports findings from three studies. It begins with a summary of the previous conflicting literature into the psychological effects of imprisonment. In an attempt to allow prisoners to speak for themselves and to identify research areas, the studies reported in the second chapter present illustrative quotations from interviews conducted with forty prisoners in low and medium security prisons. Following issues raised by these participants, chapters three to seven report findings from the first survey of fear in the Prison Service. Fifty-one per cent of prisoners and 67% of officers reported feeling afraid. More life sentence prisoners towards the beginning of their sentence and “vulnerable prisoners” not held in a Vulnerable Prisoner Unit report feeling fear. Seven per cent of the prisoners were afraid all of the time. The most common area in which prisoners felt fear was in their cell. Officers felt fearful in the context of situations in which control may be at risk. Officers also demonstrated a limited awareness of the fears felt by prisoners. However, they felt that prisoners would fear intimidation, bullying and being in debt whereas the prisoners themselves did not use any of these labels for their fears. Research reported in chapters eight to thirteen derived more information about the levels of fear and means of control utilised by officers. It particularly assessed the impact of female officers on male prison wings and their reception by the prisoners and their colleagues. Relationships between officers and prisoners are better than typically predicted and male and female officers do not favour different means of control, contrary to predictions. Chapter fourteen presents findings from a control group of police officers. The general conclusion is that fear in prisons is real, based on experience and both can and ought to be managed better.

This thesis examines the experience of pupils negotiating their early adolescence within their secondary schools. Specifically, the focus is upon sexual bullying; the sexualised hostility and interpersonal conflict between pupils, and its role in the structuring of gender relations within the peer-subculture. The research adopts an ethnographic method, interviewing and observing pupils within the schools over a five year period. The existing research on bullying in schools is criticised for its concentration on psychologistical variables of deviancy within individual children at the expense of political and cultural factors. An attempt is made by this study to reproblematise the current theories on bullying in schools, and reconceptualise the phenomenon of bullying in terms of gender and cultural studies. From this perspective, a continuum of oppressive behaviours can be seen in operation, with homophobia and misogyny implicated in the practices and processes of pupils’ construction of sexual and gender identities. The extent of the effects of these practices upon general social relations in school are discussed, and the dynamic relationship between the subcultural value systems and official organisation of the school is explored. The schools’ formal structures of discipline and control of large numbers of maturing young people are analysed in terms of their unintended consequences. An examination is made of the schools’ official discourses on competition and normality, and of the adoption, distortion and intensification of those discourses by the pupils within their own value system of personal reputation. The study then analyses their effects on the forms of gender policing carried out by the subculture.

Bullying has become a pervasive problem in schools throughout the world. Although there has been an increasing research interest in many different countries, only a small number of studies have been carried out in Northern Ireland. The aim of this thesis was to identify the nature and extent of bullying in schools in Belfast. The stability of these problems over a one year period and the effect of bully/victim status on children’s peer relations and self-esteem, were examined. 8% of children at stage one (n=157) reported bullying others, 29% experienced bullying and 17% were involved as a bully-victim. At the final stage there was an increase in the number of bullies, with a corresponding decrease in victim and bully-victim reports. Despite this, there were identifiable groups of children who were repeatedly involved in bully/victim situations. There was a significant difference in the social status and reputation of children more accepted by their peers and perceived as sociable and aggressive, than children less involved. Stable victims were both rejected by their peers and had a negative social reputation, than any other group. Furthermore, the results indicated that repeated victimisation was related to low levels of self-perceived competence, whereas the self-esteem of stable bullies was comparable to not involved children. Overall, the extent of bullying problems indicated in this study and their effects on peer relations and self-esteem indicate that further research is needed in schools throughout Northern Ireland. The contribution that this study makes in relation to the existing body of knowledge on bully/victim problems in schools is discussed.