answer:I have not seen any data on bullying, but my impression is that things are far less violent and brutal than they were when I was a kid. Although, it’s likely just my experience. I grew up in a “good” middle-class suburb. From grades 1 to 7, there probably wasn’t a week that passed without getting into a fist fight. That’s just what you did. For boys in my town, it was a rough scene. Occasionally, one of the parents would call some other parent because there were excessive black eyes or missing teeth, but that would just result in more torment. The most that would happen for getting into a fight in the school would be a scolding by the principal, and maybe a day after school in detention. I have told my kids about kids used to fight a lot when I was a kid, and they are shocked. I believe them. It just doesn’t happen (at least in the town I live in now). My wife says that she wasn’t exposed to it when she was a kid, and we’re the same age. But she grew up here, in my current upper-middle-class suburb. But my friends who grew up in East Boston or Malden have similar or worse experiences than I do. So, I don’t know if it’s worse. I suspect it isn’t. I suspect that it depends on where you live. And I suspect that overall, the intolerance of this type of shit has probably reduced the incidence of bullying/fighting. EDIT: I failed to mention that besides the actually fighting, the bullying (verbal) was intense. Legally-blind kid was just tortured. Smaller, less “masculine” boys were faggots for the entire school experience. Fat kids (ahem, me) were just referred to as “fat [insert last name here]” in school and out. The teachers didn’t do shit. There were times that everyone in class would know that there would be a kid beaten to shit after class for being ugly or fat, and the teachers wouldn’t do anything.