QUALIFICATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFENSE AS BULLYING: PROBLEMS ASPECTS

Abstract

Introduction. The article describes bullying as an administrative offense that infringes on the basic rights of the child. The relevance of the article is noted by the fact that administrative liability for harassment in an educational institution was introduced not so long ago, so when drawing up reports by law enforcement agencies, many mistakes are made. Thus, the purpose of the study is to analyze the case law on bullying to identify the most problematic issues in the preparation of administrative reports and bring the violator to justice. The article used general scientific research methods, such as: analysis, synthesis for a thorough study of case law on bullying of a participant in the educational process.

Summary of the main research results. Since bullying is characterized by such features as systemic, power imbalance, harm to the victim, the absence of at least one of these elements denies the qualification of the act as bullying. In the case materials, one-time acts of violence against a minor are often considered, which may be qualified under another article of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, but not as bullying. In such situations, an administrative report must be drawn up for the parents of the offenders under Article 184 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, which provides for the prosecution of parents or persons replacing them for failure to fulfill their responsibilities for the upbringing of their children. Violence used by equal parties in resolving the conflict due to the absence of the aggressor and the victim does not contain any elements of the offense. The problematic aspect of bringing the offender to justice is incorrectly drawn up administrative protocols that do not contain all the necessary elements provided for in Part 1 of Art. 256 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses. Most often, the report does not indicate the time or place of the bullying, does not indicate what specific actions were committed by the offender, does not contain any indication of the presence of witnesses to the events and does not indicate what damage was caused.

Conclusions. Due to carelessly drawn up protocols, which take a lot of time to complete, offenders avoid responsibility because the terms for punishment expire. Increasingly, teachers are being held administratively liable for bullying, as a rule, they carry out psychological harassment of students, such as insults, ridicule or the use of nicknames. However, minors and juveniles remain the main perpetrators of bullying. While administrative penalties are in most cases imposed on their parents. This raises doubts about the effectiveness of such punishment of the real offender and transfers the implementation of such punishment to the parents of the bully.