This research is about the cyber-bullying in Sophie Mckenzie’s SweetFreak.
This research’s objectives are to describe the extrinsic element that are the
causes, types and effects of cyber-bullying in the novel. This research used
psychological approach in its method and the descriptive qualitative method
for its research design. Through the use of the Lifestyle-Routine Activity
Theory by Candace et al. (2023) a theory to determine the likelihood of
victimization, the researcher found that the cyber-bullying in this novel
happened because of three factors: motivated offender, target suitability,
absence of guardianship. The motivated offender factor happened because the
culprit of the cyber-bullying was driven to do the cyber-bullying, target
suitability factor happened because the victim of the cyber-bullying had done
something prior that made her suitable to be targeted by the perpetrator, the
absence of guardianship happened because no real elders in the novel ever
tried to protect or supervised the victim. Then in terms of types of cyber-
bullying, the researcher found that there are five types of cyber-bullying that
are used in the novel. The types of cyber-bullying are: denigration, flaming,
fraping, online harassment, photograph & video. As for the effects, the
researcher found there are three kinds of effect from the cyber-bullying, that
are displayed by the main character in the novel. They are: academic effect,
which disrupts the main character’s school life, the social effect that ruined
the main character’s interaction with her peers, and finally the emotional
effect that disturbed the psyche of the main character.
