In the novel The Painted Bird, a bird catcher paints a bird different colors
and watches the other birds kill it.

Is there a sociological term for the event in which a group of people single
out a lone individual, for whatever reason, and team up on him or her?

On Sep 10, 3:13 pm, "Scott H" wrote:

Collusion is an agreement, usually secretive, which occurs between two
or more persons to deceive, mislead, or defraud others of their legal
rights, or to obtain an objective forbidden by law typically involving
fraud or gaining an unfair advantage. It can involve "wage fixing,
kickbacks, or misrepresenting the independence of the relationship
between the colluding parties."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collusion

Or something approximating a civil conspiracy without a violation of
rights I suppose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(civil)

Do I understand the question ? Perhaps

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/scapegoat

I would bet there are better technical terms in the psycho-biological
literature

"Scott H" wrote in message
news:rc-dnV1KbKTq21XVnZ2dnUVZ_sbinZ2d@supernews.com...

Cull? Culling?

Here's some other possibilities
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/landing/?word=cull&ad=mwcom.dict.txt1

"Scott H" wrote in message
news:rc-dnV1KbKTq21XVnZ2dnUVZ_sbinZ2d@supernews.com...

Alienation, perhaps

alienation [,eIljE'neISEn or ,eIlIE-] noun

1 a turning away; estrangement

2 the state of being an outsider or the feeling of being isolated, as from
society

3 (Psychiatry) a state in which a person's feelings are inhibited so that
eventually both the self and the external world seem unreal

4 (Law)

a the transfer of property, as by conveyance or will, into the ownership of
another

Scott H sent the following on 9/10/2008 5:13 PM:

High school.

Campaign season.

Take your pick.

On Sep 10, 6:13 pm, "Scott H" wrote:

For whatever reason? heh.

On Usenet:
http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/index.htm

Try the pull down list and see where you stand.

being ostracised, ostracisation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracism
While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the victim,
ostracism was often used pre-emptively. It was used as a way of defusing
major confrontations between rival politicians (by removing one of them from
the scene), neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state, or
exiling a potential tyrant. Crucially, ostracism had no relation to the
processes of justice. There was no charge or defence, and the exile was not
in fact a penalty; it was simply a command from the Athenian people that one
of their number be gone for ten years.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
which would then also extend to such terms as

bullying,
bigotry,
racism,
xenophobia,
and ultimately

On Sep 10, 3:13 pm, "Scott H" wrote:

Prison sex.

jonathan wrote:

Culling implies total rejection and doesn't do much to say anything about
the value or superiority of the one singled out by the group, or the
possibility thereof.

We did not cull Copernicus.