Alexa Comfort

Professor Chism

7/25/17

Inquiry Essay: Rough Draf

Unlike many other students at the University of Maryland or other colleges, I have not

decided upon an interested major for the fall of 2017. Yet I do have some interests in which I

will possibly major in which are psychology, pre-medicine, or criminal justice. The field I will

strictly focus on in this inquiry is psychology and the idea of mental health. The question that

will be addressed is, Should online bullies or physical bullies be held accountable in cases of

teen suicide?. There are many sides people may choose which are for being held accountable,

against being held accountable, or other ideas that should be done to the bullies.

According to Davis Klein, the author discusses that school children to upcoming adults,

have been tormented for years and many have led to causing physical harm to themselves

which has led to many suicides. Klein states It could have something to do with who would be

sued, as it is hard to deem an entire school responsible for the actions of a few bad apples.

What about the parents? Demographically speaking the average American household simply

has little to nothing - in terms of liquefiable assets to recover. Should even more be done by the

government? (Klein). The author Klein in this case, does not state whether he is for or against

bullies being held responsible, but rather states how the government does not do much and

questions the audience about what they believe, not him or anyone else.
 In Greg Toppos scholarly article, Should Bullies Be Treated as Criminals, the author

discusses several cases that deal with issue of teen suicide due to bullies. Toppo directly

answers the question of this inquiry by answering, Yes bullies should be responsible for their

victims death If the bullying is so severe that they cant take it anymore and they commit suicide

then they should be held responsible because they shouldn't be doing it in the first place and

they know its wrong but they do it anyway because they are (mentally) weak (Toppp). Toppo

discusses in his article which side he is on, which is that bullies should be held accountable for

suicides of their victims.

In the CQ researcher blog, Should bullying resulting in suicide be a criminal offense? ,

by Thomas J. Billitteri, discusses how the law technically cannot criminally charge bullies with

death by suicide of another student. The author explains his theory by stating, The criminal law

typically does not hold people responsible for outcomes that are idiosyncratic or unpredictable.

(Billitteri). In his argument unlike Toppos, he does not state whether he is directly for or against

any side at all, but just that typically or usually that bullies are not held accountable because it

can be very difficult. A statistic he does use to show in support of bullies being held accountable

is 69 percent of adult respondents said harassing someone over the Internet should be a

punishable crime.. This statistic is very important because it shows how the majority is in favor

of bullying being a punishable crime.