I would be interested in any studies that look into the home environments of those who are bullies, those who get targeted as a victim by bullies, and the bully victims who go on to become bullies themselves.
My theory is that the origin of all aspects of bullying behavior, is their home environment: bullying begets bullying.
A child with a stronger, more dominant, even psychopathic personality reacts to chronic emotional and/or physical abuse by parents or older siblings, or reacts to emotional or physical neglect by parents, by inflicting pain on those who are even smaller and weaker than he or she is.
A child with a more fearful, anxious, or more submissive personality reacts to chronic emotional and/or physical abuse by parents or older siblings, or reacts to chronic neglect, by becoming even more passively submissive and withdrawn, which ironically seems to attract even more abuse.
So, if you know of any studies on bullying behavior that include the bully's background, or the bullying victim's background (specifically the home environment RE violent, abusive, or negligent parenting, dangerously violent older siblings, etc) I would like to read that.
My solution is radical, politically incorrect, and unfeasible. But, I think it would work.
Any minor child who is a chronic (more than two incidents) bully, and any minor child who is a chronic (more than two incidents) bully target or victim of bullying, needs to be removed from their parents because the parents are either chronically abusive toward the child, or are criminally negligent and allowing the child to be bullied IN THE CHILD'S OWN HOME.
Inadequate, irresponsible, negligent, exploitative or abusive parents ought to lose the right to parent, either temporarily or permanently, depending on the case.
The minor child would be relocated to a safe, nurturing environment and given therapy, and re-parented to make it clear that bullying will not be tolerated and that kindness and empathy and respect toward others earns rewards.
The parents would be fined, required to attend psychological therapy, required to attend parenting classes and would need to pass examinations or tests to show that they are now qualified to parent.
Airline pilots have to have certain qualifications, meet certain standards, undergo rigorous training and pass difficult tests in order to obtain a license to be a pilot; seems to me that parenting is at least as important a job as being an airline pilot.
See, that is pretty radical. It would require a huge paradigm shift in our culture, society, and laws RE human rights, parent's rights, etc. But what we have now isn't working very well, so maybe its time to try a radical approach.