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This incident occurred on October 24th, 2009 in Richmond, a city in California. A fifteen-year-old were allegedly raped and assaulted outside a high school homecoming dance. As hundreds of kids were inside of the school gym, outside in the mutedly pathway where the victim was beaten, as many as 20 persons were present (According to a CNN report). The savagery of the attack was terrible, but what was even considered more shocking was the fact that so many people observed, laughed, and took pictures of the attack and, still failed to interfere or call the police.
In fact, Research on Bystander effect partly suggests why the witnesses were unwilling to help. The reason is, too many people were present. The bystander effect is the
finding to less likely help someone when other bystanders are present. They all assuming that someone is already calling the police. Moreover, social Psychologists like Bibb Latane and John Darley explained the reasons why those witnesses fail to help by conducting a series of lab experiment. They suggest that the first step to help another is to recognize that someone needs help. The bystander needs to understand that they are witnessing an emergency condition and that a victim needs assistance. Generally, in these types of situations, people depends on others to see how they are reacting. Subsequently, in the Richmond case, they basically failed to realize they were witnessing a ruthless rape and instead may have assumed that it was prank. To improve the chances of getting help, first, the person in question can reverse the factors that inhibit helping. He can take steps by reducing the ambiguity of an emergency, making a personal appeal, and increasing feelings of responsibilities. It is rare to help someone if you are not somehow related to that person. I, sometimes, feels like I could have showed assistance in some cases, but I usually think that I don’t have any responsibility for anything. Someone else is about to help. Nevertheless, after going through this chapter, my perceptions about helping has completely changed.
The bystander effect refers to the tendency for an observer of an emergency to withhold aid if the:
Researchers have studied the bystander affect for many years now and have found out a few reasons why it happens. The bystander affect is important in night because of how people act in groups. Germans watched the Jews go by and didn’t say anything some even threw bread at them (night). Night shows that the more people that are around the less likely people are to help. Kitty was killed in front of 30 some people and no one did anything to help (the death of kitty Genovese.) During her murder people sat and watched out there window thinking someone else had called or helped her. Also, the bystander affect was shown in knight because as the Jews were being mass murdered not one person stood up to try and help until it was too late. Likewise,
All in all, if we do not stand up then we only affirm the perpetrators, and if there are too many that affirm perpetrators instead of standing up for the victim, bystanders can prove to be more dangerous than the perpetrators.
Although it may be natural human behavior when stripped from civilization, how the boys' behavior has changed morally based on their situation is the main part of the destruction on the island. One thing is that the boys on the island were not willing to go after and help each other. The bystander effect engaged, they let all these horrible things happen to each other without taking action to stop it and get things under control. This quote shows us an example of how the bystander effect was happening while Jack and his tribe were killing Simon: “Again the blue-white scar jagged above them and the sulphurous explosion beat down. The littluns screamed and blundered about, fleeing from the edge of the forest, and one of them broke the ring of biguns in
Do we ever really know how we will act when put into a hectic situation? Some may be calm and collected in times of need and step up as a leader; others may fall under the pressures put upon them. Though the boys from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, all react very differently in their particular situation, they all have one thing in common; they all fall victim of becoming a bystander. When looking at John Darley and Bibb Latane experiments on witness behavior, one can easily see that the boys on the island fell into what we know as the bystander effect, while stranded on the island. The work of William Golding shows many occasions where the bystander effect comes into play for the boys and changes their actions.
The bystander effect is a the phenomenon in which the more people are are around the less likely someone will step-in or help in a given situation. THe most prominent example of this is the tragic death of Kitty Genovese. In march of 1964 Kitty genovese was murdered in the alley outside of her apartment. That night numerous people reported hearing the desperate cries for help made by Kitty Genovese who was stabbed to death. Her screams ripped through the night and yet people walked idly by her murder. No one intervened and not even a measly phone call to the police was made.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” We are All Bystanders by Jason Marsh and Dacher Keltner is an article that reflects on the psychological and social phenomenon that refers to cases in which people do not offer any assistance or help to a victim. Studies say that a person's personality can determine how they react to a bystander situation. In a book called, The Heart of Altruism, author Kristen Monroe writes the altruistic perspective. Altruistic people are strongly connected to other humans and have a concern for the well-being of others. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief exemplifies the bystander theory through Liesel and
...though the researchers weren’t looking for it, he results represent ideas that can help the bystander effect in a situation. Smaller numbers increase the percentage of realization when it comes down to an emergency. The victim, if cohesive, actually plays a big role in causing the bystander effect as well. When a victim is unable to verbally communicate with bystanders, it lessens the chance of help. If a victim is capable of communicating, the help given could be more efficient. This is because it can help break the diffusion of responsibility. A victim looking a bystander directly in the eyes can even spark a quicker reaction in them. These are all ideas that psychologists still study today, and many even consider learning about this phenomenon a requirement.
Not only was it in public, the rape occurred in front of hundreds of beach goers. To even better the story, the woman would have not had a clue if she had not recognized herself in a video she saw later on the news. Needless to say, a people stood around, watched, and even videoed an illegal act affecting a young woman for the rest of her life and did absolutely nothing to stop it. The Sherriff of the area is quoted saying, "And yet our culture and our society and our young people have got to the point where obviously this is acceptable somewhere. I will tell you it is not acceptable in Bay County."(Stapleton). If this is unacceptable, why is it continuing to happen? It is because this bystander apathy is soaking through the cracks and saying that keeping to oneself is better than an effort to improve upon the situation at
According to CBS “Ex foster kids say abuse routine in home of teens found dismembered”. The kids faced physical and sexual abuse.Jeannette Walls tells of a time when, as a child, she was sexually assaulted by a neighbor while in her bed. Her father went around town looking for the man -- "pervert hunting" -- trying to show his daughter that he cared what had happened to her.This is relevant because according to Rainn.org “Every 98 seconds a person is sexually assaulted”. It is also relevant because it's important for people to be heard.Another time, Uncle Stanley begins groping Jeannette while they are watching television. She complains to her mother, but her mother says that "sexual assault is a crime of perception" page .184. It is relevant to the world because people tend to try to tell someone and they are pushed away.It is relevant because both Jeannette and her brother both experienced sexual abuse while growing up when they were younger. Most people are afraid to speak up when things like that occurs and when they read about they tend to want to speak up like Jeannette and her brother did. Sometimes when people try to speak up they are ignored and that drives them to harm themselves. Rape is forced, unwanted sexual intercourse, and is sometimes also called sexual assault. Rape can happen to both men and
One of the strengths is providing a new insight into bystander effect. The study argued that researchers have previously neglected the potential benefit of bystanders and thus, the study provided a new horizon by proving reversed bystander effect through experiment. This allows us to be aware of the fact that someone may be providing help merely due to impression management. This arouses a doubt on whether the one who provides help is genuinely concerned about the needs of the victims, or one is just motivated by upholding his/her reputation when surrounded by a crowd. Besides, carrying out a manipulation check right after this experiment is beneficial to this study as well....
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8, 377–383
...ames M. Hudson and Amy S. Bruckman study a specific component of the bystander effect: social cues. This component states that, “Individuals actively look to one another for cues about how to behave in the situation. The inaction of others will likely cause the inaction of the individual” (Hudson and Bruckman 170). Humans are always worrying about what others think of them. Therefore, if there is a situation which requires help, but the majority is simply watching, an individual who may be willing to assist will quickly change their mind. This is the case with the magistrate. Since so many people were watching and treating his torture as a spectacle, those who would want to help didn’t for fear of standing out. This fear of helping the magistrate and going against the Empire is a result of the pressure that war brings to stay completely loyal to a person’s nation.
Gender violence is an ongoing issue in the United States. This year has been a year of many sexual assault cases. The recent most popular showed in the media is a Columbia student, Emma Sulkowicz who carried her mattress around campus to protest her rapists continued presence at the school (Brodsky & Deutsch, 2014). Emma brought her sexual assault to attention, but this was not the first time a sexual assault has occurred on a college campus or unfortunately the last. “In 1976, the Yale undergraduate had refused to acquiesce to her professor’s sexual demands—the disappointment of which, he told her, would earn her a C instead of an A. Price reported the events to Yale’s administration, but, as she later testified in federal court, school officials
“Every 98 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. And every 8 minutes, that victim is a child. Meanwhile, only 6 out of every 1,000 perpetrators will end up behind bars.” (Rainn) While these statistics are scary to look at, it is very difficult to measure the magnitude of this crime accurately due to the lack of reports. Rape is one of the most underreported crimes. “In 2002, only thirty-nine percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law officials.” (Sexual Violence: Fact Sheet.) Sexual violence in the United States is not an issue, but an epidemic in many ways, it is extremely hard for victims to come forward, perpetrators of sexual violence are rarely punished, and there is cultural and political ignorance of the problem.