Bullying in the military
Encyclopedia
In 2000, the UK Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

 (MOD) defined bullying as: “...the use of physical strength or the abuse of authority to intimidate or victimize others, or to give unlawful punishments.” A review of a number of deaths, supposedly by suicide, at Princess Royal Barracks, Deepcut
Princess Royal Barracks, Deepcut
The Princess Royal Barracks, Deepcut, commonly referred to as Deepcut Barracks, is the headquarters of the Royal Logistic Corps of the British Army and the Defence School of Logistics. Located near Camberley, Surrey, England, it was the headquarters of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps until the...

 by Nicholas Blake QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...

 indicated that whilst a culture of bullying existed during the mid to late 1990s many of the issues were being addressed as a result of the Defence Training Review
Defence Training Review
The Defence Training Review was established by the then Defence Secretary, Lord Robertson, on 22 July 1999 toexamine all individual training and education, Service and civilian, in the British armed forces. The review report, entitled Modernising Defence Training, was published in 2001...

.

Some argue that this behaviour should be allowed because of a general academic consensus that "soldiering" is different from other occupations. Soldiers expected to risk their lives should, according to them, develop strength of body and spirit to accept bullying.

In some countries, ritual hazing
Hazing
Hazing is a term used to describe various ritual and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group....

 among recruits has been tolerated and even lauded as a rite of passage
Rite of passage
A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....

 that builds character and toughness; while in others, systematic bullying of lower-ranking, young or physically slight recruits may in fact be encouraged by military policy, either tacitly or overtly (see dedovshchina
Dedovshchina
Dedovshchina is the name given to the informal system of subjection of new junior conscripts, formerly to the Soviet Armed Forces and today to the Russian armed forces, Interior Ministry, and FSB border guards, as well as the military forces of certain former Soviet Republics, to brutalization...

). Also, the Russian army usually have older/more experienced candidates abusing – kicking or punching – less experienced soldiers.

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