"I'm sure Billy thinks he can't reverse the tide because everyone knows him and how he gets beat. But throw him in a new neighborhood where nobody knows his pas

"I'm sure Billy thinks he can't reverse the tide because everyone knows him and how he gets beat. But throw him in a new neighborhood where nobody knows his past at all, and I'll bet you the same problem will occur. That's because he's projecting a bloody image of himself that the sharks will no doubt sniff real quick. " I've only been rarely picked on as a kid, maybe all of five times that I remember. No one tried more than twice. I made friend with some of them. I pushed around a couple people (psychologically and socially), at least until one of them told me a few years later exactly what I did. (We were walking somewhere, and he opened up to me for some reason). I agree that there are aggressors that sniff out fear and weakness. This may even be a literal thing, if someone can smell the stink of fear. However, I have no idea if this is what's happening in this specific instance of Billy. You really have to be face-to-face before you can be sure. Whether or not Billy is giving off the "I'm a victim" signal, counting on the authorities is like looking for a bigger bully. You're reaching for a bigger stick, whether that is in the form of a lawsuit or jail time. On the flip side of things, the American public education system is not that great. It's biggest flaw, particularly in middle school, is that it sets up the same kind of conditions as found in the Stanford Prison experiment. But that is more of a comment about the teacher-student dynamic than it is about the student-student dynamic. When you come down to it, forcing kids to go to school turns the whole education process into one big babysitting operation, and I think most kids know this at some level. Does that create more opportunities for these kids to get a sick kick? I have a couple friends that grew up in the Talladega, AL area. Each of them independently told me that people around there are clinically antisocial and borderline-psychopathic. Hell, some are not even "borderline". They each told me that it wasn't just that people are inheriting genetic factors that predispose them to these kind of behavior, there are also environmental factors reinforcing them. The parents there mess with their kids. A common form of entertainment for groups of men is walking around looking for someone to beat up. In other words, you don't walk around in that area unless you're prepared to be physically assaulted. A number of these issues is thoroughly addressed in Orson Scott Card's book, Ender's Game. Or even Lord of the Flies. Adolescent humor is exactly that. "Heh-heh". Look at Beavis and Butthead or South Park. It's what happens when there's no longer any real coming-of-age rites in a civilized society.