Free US Law Dictionary

Hazing

Hazing is an often ritualistic test and a task, which may constitute harassment, abuse or humiliation with requirements to perform random, often meaningless tasks, sometimes as a way of initiation into a social group. The definition can refer to either physical (sometimes violent) or mental (possibly degrading) practices; it may also include an 'erotic' element (notably nudity).

The word "hazing" is most frequently encountered in the United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries, ragging, fagging or fooling is usually used instead. In Australia, the term "bastardisation""badness" is used. In continental European languages, terms with a 'christening' theme or etymology are often preferred (e.g. baptême in French, doop in Dutch in Flanders) or variations on a theme of naïveté and the rite of passage such as a derivation from a term for freshman (e.g. bizutage in French, ontgroening 'de-green[horn]ing' in Dutch) or a combination of both, such as in the Finnish mopokaste (literally "motorbicycle baptism", "motorbicycle" being the nickname for freshmen, stemming from the concept that they would be barred from riding a full motorcycle by their age).

Often most or all of the endurance, or at least the more serious ordeal, is concentrated in an orgiastic collective session, which may be called hell night, or prolonged to a hell week and/or retreat or camp, sometimes again at the pledge's birthday (e.g. by birthday spanking), but some traditions keep terrorizing pledges (a common term for the initiation candidates; alternative terms include newbie, rookie, mainly in athletic teams and freshman) over a long period, resembling fagging.

Hazing is often used as a method to promote group loyalty and camaraderie through shared suffering (male bonding in fraternities), either with fellow participants, past participants or both.

A tentative explanation from evolutionary psychology is that grave hazing can activate the psychological trait known as Stockholm syndrome.