Dr. Angela Mazzone:

As the Senator notes, bullying is a very complex phenomenon and it does not just relate to one aspect of life.

I can confirm that bullying is viewed by many researchers as amoral behaviour and perpetrators of bullying miss what we call empathic concern towards the target of bullying. These people have the ability to realise their behaviour is harmful but they do not feel a strong concern towards the target. Some successful intervention programmes, therefore, have worked on empathy. This is, of course, a way to address the programme when looking at those children who perpetrate bullying.

Morality is also important when we look at the bystanders because research shows that they sometimes do not feel the moral responsibility to do anything. They do not even feel the responsibility to report the bullying because they assume it is not their responsibility. Increasing the sense of responsibility, therefore, could be a way to address the problem.

The Senator also mentioned mediation and restorative justice. I am not familiar with this but I can look into it and email some research to her. I know one method called the support group approach has been adopted with the target of bullying and the shared concern method implies having informal meetings between the teachers or some appointed members of staff to talk to the perpetrator of bullying in a kind of indirect way. It is a non-confrontational approach. They try, in a way, to enhance moral compassion and enhance the perpetrator's sense of moral responsibility. This should be a kind of restorative way to somehow address the problem.