Dr. Dale Hartley, professor of Psychology, defines bullying in an article published in Psychology Today as “a pattern of behavior carried out by one person against another that is intended to harass, intimidate, or terrorize the victim.” When we hear about bullying, it is common to associate ‘surnames’ that follow this word, such as school bullying or sexual harassment.
But the truth is that, speaking of harassment outside the classroom (also known as bullying), there are several types of harassment that can be differentiated, depending on the motive that motivates the behavior of the harassing person and the bond that unites them. with the harassed person. In this regard, Dr. Ronald M. Holmes, professor emeritus of criminology, proposed six different categories of stalkers.
For his part, Psychology professor Dale Hartley proposes adding a seventh type of stalker: the revenge stalker. He notes that this could be an angry former employee, an aggrieved business partner, a resentful neighbor, a vengeful relative, or anyone else—usually known to the victim—whose motive for the harassment is revenge.
Dr. Hartley emphasizes that “there is no reliable profile to predict who is likely to bully.” However, he adds that certain patterns are beginning to be deduced from research, such as unemployed or underemployed, people in their late 30s or late 40s, high school or college graduates, people more intelligent than most criminals, often delusional, of any race or ethnicity and mostly men (although erotomania is more prevalent among women).
In the aforementioned article, he appeals to a study that proved that clinical and personality disorders are present in more than half of the harassers evaluated. Furthermore, he adds that in general few stalkers are psychopaths, but they can be narcissistic, histrionic or antisocial.
