Hazing
[3] Hazing is seen in many different types of social groups, including gangs, sports teams, schools, cliques, universities, law enforcement, military units, prisons, fraternities and sororities, and even workplaces in some cases.
The initiation rites can range from relatively benign pranks to protracted patterns of behavior that rise to the level of abuse or criminal misconduct.
In some languages, terms with a religious theme or etymology are preferred, such as baptism or purgatory (e.g. baptême in Belgian French, doop in Belgian Dutch, chrzest in Polish) or variations on a theme of naïveté and the rite of passage such as a derivation from a term for freshman, for example bizutage in European French, ontgroening ('de-green[horn]ing') in Dutch and Afrikaans (South Africa and Namibia), novatada in Spanish, from novato, meaning newcomer or rookie or a combination of both, such as in the Finnish mopokaste (literally 'moped baptism')[5].
Less loaded names for hazing are otrzęsiny (related to the verb otrząsać 'get over, rally' but also 'shake off/out'—as being a novice is a negative state that should be quit) and chrzciny mentioned above.
[12] The hazee may have to wear an imposed piece of clothing, outfit, item, or something else worn by the victim in a way that would bring negative attention to the wearer.
They are painted, written, tattooed, or shaved on, sometimes collectively forming a message (one letter, syllable, or word on each pledge) or may receive tarring and feathering (or rather a mock version using some glue) or branding.
Abject "etiquette" required of pledges or subordinates may include prostration, kneeling, literal groveling, and kissing body parts.
[18] On their first crossing the equator in military and commercial navigation, each "pollywog" is subjected to a series of tests, usually including running or crawling a gauntlet of abuse and various scenes supposedly situated at King Neptune's court.
Real-world hazing may last months, may be far more severe, and may involve a confluence of different feelings, in contrast to the relatively simple distress induced in laboratory experiments.
[21][24]: 137 Researcher Aldo Cimino also points out that laboratory groups are "ephemeral", whereas real-world organizations that engage in hazing are "serious and enduring coalitions".
A 2014 paper by Harvey Whitehouse[37] discusses theories that hazing can cause social cohesion though group identification and identity fusion.
A 2017 study published in Scientific Reports found that groups that share painful or strong negative experiences can cause visceral[vague] bonding and pro-group behavior.
[39] Anthropologist Aldo Cimino notes that hazing ordeals can sometimes provide information about how a prospective member values a group by demonstrating the costs they are willing to endure.
The most common hazing-related activities reported in student groups included alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep deprivation, and sex acts.
Signing the charter would have been a pledge to notify the city of the place and time of the hazing ceremony and to abstain from violence, racism, extortion, bullying, sexual assault, discrimination, and the use of vertebrate animals.
Other situations causing additional risks for incidents are members (often joining the hazing camp but not designated with any responsibility) separating pledges and taking them away from the main group to 'amuse themselves' with them.
Universities generally support student unions (financially and by granting board members a discount on the required number of ECTS credits).
According to R. Dayao, hazing, usually in initiation rites of fraternities, has a long history in the Philippines and has been a source of public controversy after many cases that resulted in the death of the neophyte.
Still, many cases, usually causing severe injury or death, continued even after it was enacted, the latest involving Darwin Dormitorio, a 20-year-old Cadet 4th Class from the Philippine Military Academy.
At Trinity College Dublin, an all-male society, Knights of the Campanile, was implicated in a hazing incident in 2019, where initiates were taunted, jeered at, told to get in a shower, insulted each other, and required to eat large amounts of butter.
[51][52] Dublin University Boat Club is also known for hazing, with rituals including consumption of alcohol, stripping to one's underwear, caning with bamboo rods, push-ups, being shouted at, standing in the rain, being tied together by shoelaces and crawling a maze while being hit with pillows.
[55] Hazing also took place at Dublin City University's Accounting & Finance Society in 2018, where first-years standing for committee positions had to complete a variety of sexualized games.
[61] The effectiveness of these measures are unknown; many accused of ragging first-year students are either let out with a warning or saved from legal action by political or caste lobbyists.
[63] The university grants commission of Sri Lanka, have set up several pathways to report ragging incidents, including a special office, helpline and a mobile app where students can make a complaint anonymously or seek help.
A portion of the military training course known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) simulates as closely as is feasible the physical and psychological conditions of a POW camp.
According to opponents, the problem with this approach is that the stress and hostility come from inside the group and not from outside as in actual combat situations, creating suspicion and distrust towards the superiors and comrades-in-arms.
Willing participants may be motivated by a desire to prove to senior soldiers their stability in future combat situations, making the unit more secure.
Colleges and universities sometimes avoid publicizing hazing incidents for fear of damaging institutional reputations or incurring financial liability to victims.
[68] Finkel cites hazing incidents including "beating or kicking to the point of traumatic injury or death, burning or branding, excessive calisthenics, being forced to eat unpleasant substances and psychological or sexual abuse of both males and females".
Under further investigation, the Marines had just returned from a six-month tour of Iraq and were in their "cooling down" period, in which they spend two weeks at a naval base before they are allowed back into society.
