Hazing

Hazing (American English), initiation, beasting (British English), bastardisation (Australian English), or ragging (South Asian English) means making new people in a group do dangerous, stupid, or unpleasant things (activities.) These are things that humiliate, embarrass, degrade, or endanger someone even if the person agrees to do them. Hazing is a type of bullying. Sex acts, drinking too much alcohol or eating too much food are often part of hazing. An illegal sex act that sometimes happens is that several or many young men (one after another) rape (have sex with someone without the person's agreement or consent.) Usually the person raped is a woman who is drunk, drugged, or being held down. Sometimes gross or disgusting things are done to new people in the group. An example is holding the new person's head in a garbage can or giving the person a swirly. For gangs, committing a murder is sometimes a thing new members are made to do. For gangs, it is not called hazing. It is called an initiation rite.

Hazing happens in many different types of social groups, including schools, colleges, universities, sports teams, cliques (groups of students who others consider popular or special), military units, prisons, gangs, fraternities and sororities, and workplaces. The types of workplaces where hazing is common are usually jobs like construction or factory jobs more than office jobs, although "team building" activities at offices can be very close to hazing.

Hazing is often against rules, but teachers or bosses ignore it ("look the other way") and say they did not see it happen.

Sometimes people die because of hazing. For example, a student might drink too much alcohol and fall off a roof.

Required physical training such as being forced to run a long distance or do a lot of push-ups in an army is not called hazing.