Anomie: Catherine Genovese and the Lack of Societal Responsibilities
Morgan R. Danke
Pima Community College
Author Note
This Paper was prepared for Criminology, AJS 225, taught by Professor Morris.
Abstract
In 1964 Catherine ‘Kitty’ Genovese was murdered and raped outside of her New York apartment in the early morning hours of 3 a.m. Her case was one that shocked all of America to its very core. The killer and the witnesses to the crime show the start of disassociation within society in the three theories that are applied throughout the following pages: Rational Choice, Anomie and Routine Activity. The development of the bystander effect and the diffusion of responsibility and its significant harms to both society and its moral compass in
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Upon his arrest he had confessed to 5 burglaries and several violent sexual assaults, including the two unsolved murders and sexual assaults of Barbara Krlik, 15 and Annie Mae Johnson, 24. He had also admitted to have attempted sexual assaults on more than 4 women, all of which failed because he preferred to be a necrophilia stating that “He got no thrill with the living women he raped” (Gado, 2004).
He had explained to police that women were the natural choice because he had the need to feel dominant. He had stated that he found crime easy to commit because it was what he had done before and Catherine was a crime of opportunity, she had no one to protect her, she was alone and he wanted to commit a crime. He stated that Catherine’s murder and assault was “just an idea that came into my mind, I couldn’t put it aside, it was the perfect opportunity.’ He had weighed his benefits and left with a purpose to kill someone and that night he had wanted it to be a woman, he had told police that “I knew as soon as I saw people turn away from her, I could commit a crime and chances were, I could get away with it” (Schmalleger, 2014, pg.
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It was stated that whether or not people help depends on a series of interconnected events and decisions. They must first notice what’s happening, understand that it is an emergency and accept personal responsibility. When this fails to happen that is called the bystander effect (Carpenter & Huffman, 2008, p. 422). It has been reported that one of the main reasons for the non-reaction to Catherine’s murder is because no one realized that they are witnessing a real killing and the major shock involved in doing so versus what they saw in television caused their minds to refuse acceptance and this was supported when New York psychiatrist, Dr. Iago Galdston stated that “The megalopolis that we live in makes closeness very difficult and leads to alienation” he finished his statement by saying “The Killing of Kitty Genovese was symbolic to all that was wrong in modern society, apathy is endemic and it is dangerous” (Gado,
In Chapter 4, In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing, the author Lauren Slater starts the chapter off telling the true story of how a young woman, Kitty Genovese, was brutally murdered and raped outside of her apartment complex. What was most shocking in the aftermath is there were a total of 38 witnesses and not a single person did anything to help her. This raised many concerns as to why the witnesses did nothing. When they were being interviewed by the cops, they stated that they just did not want to get involved(p.94), thus “diffusing responsibility”, this is a term used by two psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latane, who were very concerned with and wanted to understand why nothing was done to aid young Kitty Genovese as she was being stabbed and raped.
The bystander effect refers to the tendency for an observer of an emergency to withhold aid if the:
If an individual is familiar with their surrounding “they are more likely to help” (Altruism and Helping Behavior. Print). In the essay, the authors state “the scene of the crime, the streets, in middle class society “represents all the vulgar and perilous in life” (Milgram, Stanley, and Paul Hollander. Paralyzed Witnesses: The Murder They Heard. Print.). In society, the streets, especially at night, represents the dangerous and negative sides of society due to the crimes and chaos that occur on the streets (gangs, drive-by shootings, robberies, murders, large crowds walking, etc.). The crimes and dangers of the streets cause many people to fear being on the streets alone which leads to external conflicts. When the murder was occurring, the witnesses’ attitudes of the streets prevented them from calling the police due to the fear of the streets and since the witnesses were middle-class, they believed that Genovese was poor, a criminal, or someone who has nothing else to do and was expecting for the=is to eventually
His first two victims were two Fresno State students, Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Luchessa, both of them murdered. After killing them, he chopped off the heads and hands. Then performed sexual acts with the bodies and heads at his apartment when his friend was gone before discarding the bodies. Later that year, he did the same thing to 15 year-old Aiko Koo. The following year he picked up and murdered Cindy Schall. Taking her to his mother’s house and doing the same things he did with his other victims. After having numerous sexual acts with Schall’s head, he buried it in his mother’s flower bed next to her bed room window. In 1973, he went to the school campus where his mother works at and offered to give a ride to Rosalind Thorpe and Alice Liu, not knowing that was going to be their lasted ride they accepted his offer. The acts he did to them were just as horrifying as the acts he did with his other victims. Some of Alice’s body parts were found by hitcher hikers off of highway 1 but Rosalind body has yet to be
Through newspapers articles we can take a glimpse at recorded history from the 18th century and see that rape had been a crime committed by many criminals, and dealt with harshly. Most victims of rape assaults were young women that were “robbed of that which constitutes the fairest part of the female sex- her chastity and peace of mind” (Newgate Calendar, Paragraph 3). John Lennard created a reputation for himself, as a man that was found guilty of raping a young woman by the name of Miss Ann Boss on the 15th of June, 1773. Not long after committing the crime, Lennard’s name appeared in numerous newspapers that were reporting on his accused crime. The newspapers followed him through his trial until after his execution on August 11, 1773. The newspapers used specific words and phrases that made Lennard appear to the public as either a dangerous criminal who has committed a particularly dangerous crime, or one that was grouped with other criminals who may have committed less dangerous or harmful crimes. These newspapers also had a way of appealing to the reader’s emotions in an attempt to teach the reader a valuable lesson from Lennard’s life of crime and execution. Through the newspapers specific word choices and appealing to our emotions and idea’s around life lesson’s, we can analyse how John Lennard is characterized by the public and depicted in the press.
He killed women in several different states. The number of victims he had is still unknown to day but some believe it ranges from 30 to 100 women. Also, no one knows exactly why he began his killing. Psychologists have a few leads and theories of what may have set him off. They believe maybe it was because of the way he was raised and the environment he grew up in. Another, reason he could have become such a prominent murderer in the US is because of his broken relationship he had with a girl in college. The most possible motive he had may have been his obsession for
Latane and Darley (1968) investigated the phenomenon known as the bystander effect and staged an emergency situation where smoke was pumped into the room participants was in. Results showed that 75% of participants who were alone reported the smoke, whereas only 38% of participants working in groups of three reported (Latane & Darley, 1968). Their findings provide evidence for the negative consequence of the diffusion of responsibility. In line with the social influence principle, bystanders depend on reactions of others to perceive a situation as an emergency and are subsequently less likely to help. Latane and Darley’s findings were also supported in recent research: Garcia and colleagues (2002) found that even priming a social context by asking participants to imagine themselves in a group could decrease helping behaviour. It can be contended that these findings are examples of social proof where individuals believe actions of the group is correct for the situation, or examples of pluralistic ignorance where individuals outwardly conform because they incorrectly assumed that a group had accepted the norm (Baumeister & Bushman,
The world is quickly becoming a more dangerous place everyday. Approximately 25,961 crimes happen every day in the U.S, many of which are witnessed by individuals at the scene of the crime. However, the sad reality is that those people are more concerned with recording the event on their phone than actually helping the one in need. A number of studies have been performed, and it has been discovered that there is a physiological phenomenon known as the bystander effect(Levine,”Rethinking”). The bystander effect occurs when someone is in need, there are others to witness their need, but they do nothing(Levine,”Rethinking”). Through experimentation it has been determined that the dependent variable in whether the witness will intervene or not
“My consuming lust was to experience their bodies. I viewed them as objects, as strangers. It is hard for me to believe a human being could have done what I've done”(Dahmer). Jeffrey Dahmer is notably one of the most infamous serial killers in the United States. Along with seventeen murders under his belt, he was also a pedophile, cannibal and necrophiliac.
What would cause an individual to behave in this rather heinous and macabre manner? Using Robert Pickton as a case study, this paper will explore the phenomenon of serial murder and apply research literature to help explain his behaviour and examine issues such as psychopathy, mental disorder, and substance abuse relevant to the Pickton case. In addition, the paper will explore the sexually sadistic nature of Pickton’s murders. Finally, the paper will explore the reasoning behind Pickton’s selection of drug addicted prostitutes as victims that enabled him to conduct his murders in relative anonymity. ...
The bystander effect plays a key role in society today. More and more people ignore a person in distress.
There are so many people that die every single day because of people who don't know how to stand up. This is simply called bystander apathy. Bystander apathy is psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to help when there are others around. But if there was a bystander law that kind of forces you to help and possibly save someones live. Americans today tend to believe that if they get involved they might end up getting in trouble.
However, that opposing argument can be found as hypocritical. If a person was getting robbed in an ally and they saw many witnesses taking no action they would likely be upset by the fact of no one is offering any assistance to them. Bystanders should put themselves into the shoes of the person in need and ask themselves how they would expect others to respond if they were the one in need. Often time’s bystanders take no intervention because of the diffusion of responsibility. “When there are four or more people who are bystanders to an emergency situation, the likelihood that at least one of them will help is just 31%” (Gaille). Another statistic shows that 85% of people who were bystanders would intervene if they knew or at least though they were the only person present in the situation. Often the only thing keeping people from intervening in bystander situations are other people. It is important for bystanders to understand the statistics of the people around them in order to create action because often times they do not realize that if they were to intervene other people would likely support them in the situation. Bystanders need to make it a personal responsibility to intervene in situations for the good of other. If people were to always take action the amount of bullying, sexual harassment, crime, and many other significant issues within a society would drastically
Fischer, P., Krueger, J., Greitemeyer, T., Kastenmüller, A., Vogrincic, C., Frey, D., Heene, M., Wicher, M., & Kainbacher, M. (2011). The bystander-effect: A meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 517-537.
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8, 377–383