Book Review

Bullying beyond the schoolyard: Preventing

Security Journal (2012) 25, 88–89. doi:10.1057/sj.2011.25

With the growth of technology and its emerging role in crime and victimization, the field of
criminology has already begun to experience numerous changes since the beginning of the
twenty-first century. The birth of cybercrime victimization as both a social problem and an
interest of academic researchers has led to a plethora of journal articles, books and research
reports. In their book Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to
Cyberbullying, Sameer Hinduja and Justin W. Patchin focus on one of the more quickly
emerging topics in cybercrime victimization – cyberbullying. As defined by the authors,
cyberbullying is ‘willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell
phones, and other electronic devices’ (p. 5). As the result of several extreme cases that have
occurred since 2005, cyberbullying has become a popular issue that is frequently discussed
by the mainstream media. To that end, Hinduja and Patchin’s work is one that is both timely
and important.
Hinduja and Patchin’s book is divided into seven chapters, with a series of reader
resources located after Chapter 7. With the first chapter, the authors provide a very basic
overview of cyberbullying. The chapter begins with a fictional example of a cyberbullying
incident between two teenage girls. They then provide a definition of cyberbullying and
explain how they arrived at that definition. They go on to discuss the growing role of
technology in the lives of teenagers and its impact on the day-to-day activities. Chapter 1
concludes with a discussion of the prevalence and consequences of traditional bullying.
Chapter 2 includes a more in-depth analysis of cyberbullying, beginning with a description
of issues that are specific to cyberbullying. The authors conclude the chapter with a detailed
discussion of some of the common methods and types of cyberbullying.
With Chapter 3, the authors describe the prevalence and consequences of cyberbullying.
For this discussion, Hinduja and Patchin rely heavily on their own cyberbullying research.
In addition to discussing the prevalence of cyberbullying, the authors also go into detail
on the characteristics of both cyberbullying offenders and victims, including gender, race,
victim–offender relationship and so on. Chapter 4 focuses specifically on online social net-
working websites. The authors provide in-depth information about the type of information
individuals post on social networking sites and how the sites have been used by cyberbullies.
The authors conclude the chapter by providing suggestions for how individuals can more
safely use social networking sites. Chapter 5 presents a discussion of the legal aspects
of cyberbullying. The authors focus specifically on the ability of schools and administrators
to legally intervene in cases of cyberbullying and harassment. As noted by the authors,

© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 0955–1622 Security Journal Vol. 25, 1, 88–89
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 Book Review

legislation regarding cybercrime victimization is one area that will require much more
attention in the future.
As one of the key chapters in the book, Chapter 6 focuses on preventing cyberbullying.
Throughout the chapter, Hinduja and Patchin provide suggestions for ways in which schools
and teachers can work to prevent cyberbullying, including establishing rules of Internet use
at school and providing students with peer mentors. The chapter also includes a discussion
of preventative measures that can be taken by parents, including methods they can use to
determine if their children are or have been cyberbullying victims. The final chapter
discusses possible responses to cyberbullying. The authors spend some time describing
ways in which school officials and/or parents can identify cyberbullying offenders and
victims. They then discuss methods of responding to cyberbullying, including formal and
informal discipline. The chapter concludes with a summary of the possible legal responses
to cyberbullying.
The book concludes with a section containing resources for school administrators,
teachers and parents. These resources include additional material on cyberbullying, such as
websites that can be used to gather more information. There are also several items that can
be used in the classroom to educate students about the dangers of cyberbullying. Finally,
there are a series of materials that can be used by school administrators or other officials to
record and track incidents of cyberbullying.
Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying provides
a wide range of information on cyberbullying, in a manner that is both useful and easy to
comprehend. However, the main contribution of the book is the final two chapters and the
resources provided at the end. Each of these sections provides detailed information about
how to identify, respond to and/or prevent cyberbullying. This information could be very
useful for school administrators, teachers and even parents who are attempting to protect
teenagers and children from the harms of cyberbullying. Further, the information could be
used to guide administrators and teachers in how they handle cases of cyberbullying, or as
classroom materials to help teach students about the dangers of cyberbullying. And, it is in
such a setting that this book would be most beneficial for crime prevention.
Although Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying
does have many positive characteristics, it is not without faults. First and foremost, this
book suffers from the same problem that many other books and journal articles examining
cybercrime victimization must deal with, which is that the material quickly becomes out-
dated. Given the speed with which technology advances, by the time material is published,
there is already something new. For example, the authors spend much time describing the
social networking site MySpace, which they state is the most popular of the social network-
ing sites. However, though it has only been 2 years since the book was published, MySpace
is now all but forgotten, as other sites have come to dominate the market. Further, much of
the subject matter and intended audience of the book is teenagers and those who directly
interact with teenagers. To that end, although useful as an aid for junior high or high school
administrators and teachers, the simplistic nature of the information provided by the book is
not that useful for academic researchers.

Billy Henson
Shippensburg University,
Shippensburg, PA, USA

© 2012 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 0955–1622 Security Journal Vol. 25, 1, 88–89 89