AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR Volume 37, pages 145–160 (2011) Criminal Thinking Patterns, Aggression Styles, and the Psychopathic Traits of Late High School Bullies and Bully-Victims Laurie L. Ragatz à , Ryan J. Anderson, William Fremouw, and Rebecca Schwartz West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : This study explored the current psychological characteristics and criminal behavior history of individuals who retrospectively reported being bullies, bully-victims, victims, or controls (i.e. neither victims nor bullies) during their last 2 years of high school. College students (n 5 960) completed measures of criminal thinking, aggression, psychopathy, and criminal behavior online. We predicted bullies and bully-victims would demonstrate the highest scores for criminal thinking, proactive aggression, psychopathy, and have the most criminal infractions. Bullies and bully-victims had significantly higher scores on criminal thinking, aggression, psychopathy, and criminal behaviors than victims or controls. Additionally, men were significantly higher in criminal thinking, aggression, psychopathy, and had more criminal acts than women. There were no gender by bully group interactions. Logistic regression analyses differentiated bully-victims from bullies. Bully-victims tended to be male, higher in criminal thinking, and higher in reactive aggression. In addition, bully-victims were distinct from victims, showing higher criminal thinking and higher proactive aggression. Aggr. Behav. 37:145–160, 2011. r 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : Keywords: bully-victim; bullying; criminal thinking; psychopathy INTRODUCTION The dramatic episodes of school violence at Columbine [Kass, 2000] and Virginia Tech [Hernan- dez, 2007] have furthered research interest with regard to the role of bullying on adolescent adjustment and aggressive behavior. Initially, re- searchers studied bullies and victims, but more recently researchers have identified a third group— bully-victims—defined as individuals who have been victims and perpetrators of bullying. A US self- report study of 15,686 students in 6th through 10th grade revealed that 13.0% of respondents acknowl- edged bullying, 10.6% of respondents disclosed being victims of bullying, and 6.3% of respondents fit the designation of bully-victims [Nansel et al., 2001]. Psychological and Behavioral Differences Between Bullies and Bully-Victims Researchers have begun to look at how bullies and bully-victims differ from each other on several psychological and behavioral dimensions. For example, several scholars have found that bully-victims show higher levels of anxiety compared with bullies [Espelage and Holt, 2006; Swearer et al., 2001]. In addition, bully-victims have been found to exhibit lower levels of self-control and more frequent displays of temper compared with bullies [Haynie et al., 2001]. Likewise, Toblin et al. [2005] found that bully-victims showed greater hyperactivity and poorer ability to regulate their emotions compared with bullies. Mixed findings have been reported with regard to the experience of depression. On the one hand, findings point to significantly more depressive symptoms in bully-victims compared with bullies [Espelage and Holt, 2006; Haynie et al., 2001; Toblin et al., 2005], whereas, on the other hand, findings of no difference have been reported with both bullies and bully-victims showing high levels of depression [Swearer et al., 2001]. In keeping with the general pattern of findings that bully-victims show Published online 23 November 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wiley onlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/ab.20377 Received 12 September 2009; Accepted 13 October 2010 à Correspondence to: Laurie L. Ragatz, Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, 53 Campus Drive, 1124 Life Sciences Building, P.O. Box 6040, Morgantown, WV 26506-6040. E-mail: Laurie.Ragatz@mail.wvu.edu r 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.