There are a few instances in which I have seen people cease to engage bullying behaviours. These have all been children or adolescents. In most of these cases, maturity appears to be the cause and I suspect it’s because they begin to see overt bullying as too crude for their age rather than necessarily wrong. In a very few of those cases the person becomes genuinely nice and their manner towards their former victims noticeably changes as though they have seen the error of their ways. I have seen this happen at most 2 or 3 times.
Not all bullying stops and when bullies change in any of these ways, the process tends to be organic and gradual. In one instance only have I seen an intervention by an adult actually work. The result was like the rarer type of outcome where there is a real change of heart except it came about instantly rather than over a period of time.
Here’s what happened. There was an older boy who used to bully and tease younger children, including myself and I approached a senior teacher who seemed to be a reliable sort for help. Her response was to talk to the boy in my presence and tell him that as an older boy he should be protective of younger children, like a big brother, and to stand up for them against bullies, and not bully them himself. Amazingly, he began to do just that. A few days later when another boy was teasing some of us, he told the boy to stop and thereafter he generally behaved in a much more pleasant manner. I have no reason to believe that the change was not genuine and permanent rather a short-term response to fear of the teacher.
I should note that the school in which this incident occurred was one in which the teachers were more enthusiastic and seemed to care more than usual about the students. They made a genuine effort to instil good values in students and to make studies reasonably interesting and worthwhile. There were no harsh punishments found in many other schools in India at that time and on the whole they did appear to inspire real respect rather exert authority through fear. My description is qualified because it wasn’t a perfect school and I do have some less favourable memories of my time there. However overall it was one of the better schools I have attended in India and elsewhere and it provided an environment which may have been important in getting the teacher’s message across and bringing about the outcome.