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This is an article written by Joe Kissell, which appeared on another blog(https://itotd.com/articles/503/kitty-genovese-syndrome/site).
In
March, 1964, a New York City woman named Catherine “Kitty†Genovese was
raped and stabbed to death as she returned home from work late at
night.
According to a newspaper report published shortly thereafter, 38
people had witnessed some or all of the attack, which took place in two
or three distinct episodes over a period of about a half hour—and yet
no one did anything to stop it; no one even reported it to the police
until the woman was already dead.
Although the murder itself was
tragic, the nation was even more outraged that so many people who could
have helped seemingly displayed callous indifference. And so the
failure of bystanders to intervene became known as “Kitty Genovese
Syndromeâ€â€”or, sometimes, just “Genovese Syndrome†or “Genovese Effect.â€
Social psychologists sometimes call it the “bystander effect.â€
Later analysis of the Genovese case would show that the media
misrepresented the facts somewhat. It’s not as though 38 people stood
calmly watching a brutal murder in broad daylight and simply went on
about their business.
This attack happened in the middle of the night
when it was dark, most people were in bed, and no one had a clear view
of the entire event. Some of the witnesses, for example, had merely
heard yelling and thought it might have been nothing more than an
argument.
At least one person apparently did call the police
immediately, but without realizing that the woman had actually been
stabbed—so the police didn’t respond with any urgency.
And perhaps,
even if an ambulance had arrived 5 minutes after the initial attack,
Kitty Genovese would still have died. So it’s plausible, at least, that
this particular case was not an example of apathetic bystanders—and
that Kitty Genovese Syndrome is a bit of a misnomer.
But it hardly matters what you call it or whether this single
tragedy could have been mitigated. The bystander effect, by whatever
name, is a very real and common occurrence.
The Pot and the Kettle
In the years since, I’ve encountered situations in which I
might have been able to help someone in trouble, but didn’t. When I see
or hear something happening—or possibly happening—I feel confused,
afraid, frustrated.
Maybe I don’t understand what’s really going on.
Maybe the person isn’t in danger at all. Can I do anything about it if
they are? What about my own safety? Surely one of these other
bystanders is better qualified to help.
Surely someone else has called
the police. And then, having stood there doing nothing while everyone
else was thinking the same thing, I feel tremendous guilt. By my
inaction, I’ve just experienced the Kitty Genovese Syndrome.
 Experience bears out that crowds of people are much less likely to intervene than individuals,
especially if those individuals are asked directly for help.
This is
the crux of Kitty Genovese Syndrome: a kind of mutual buck-passing that
occurs within a group when no one emerges automatically as the “rightâ€
person to help.
Everyone assumes that someone else will be the one to
help. Although fear for one’s safety often plays a part, that fear
shouldn’t prevent someone from, say, making a phone call. No one, of
course, wants the inconvenience of being dragged into someone else’s
problem.
But I think nearly all of us would be willing to endure some inconvenience to save a person’s life. What makes Kitty Genovese
Syndrome so insidious is that the apparent strength in numbers is
actually a weakness that discourages any individual from taking on
personal responsibility to intervene.
International Bystanders
When I saw the film Hotel Rwanda,
I left the theater very upset. The genocide in the early 1990s that
left 800,000 Rwandans dead occurred with very little intervention from
either those within Rwanda or the international community—a profound
example, as several commentators have pointed out, of Kitty Genovese
Syndrome.
I simply couldn’t fathom that anyone could know what was
going on and do nothing. And yet, paradoxically, I can imagine no other
response—with so many other people in the world, surely this must be
someone else’s problem.
Someone wiser, more powerful, or closer to the
situation. What could I have done anyway? I have my own problems. But
then, so does everyone else.
There’s no cure for this problem. Even knowing about this effect as
I do, chances are, I’ll someday be an unhelpful bystander once again.
But just maybe I’ll have the presence of mind to realize that the
person best qualified to help is the one willing to take action in the
And there you have it!!!!!
<
In
March, 1964, a New York City woman named Catherine “Kitty†Genovese was
raped and stabbed to death as she returned home from work late at
night.
According to a newspaper report published shortly thereafter, 38
people had witnessed some or all of the attack, which took place in two
or three distinct episodes over a period of about a half hour—and yet
no one did anything to stop it; no one even reported it to the police
until the woman was already dead.
Although the murder itself was
tragic, the nation was even more outraged that so many people who could
have helped seemingly displayed callous indifference. And so the
failure of bystanders to intervene became known as “Kitty Genovese
Syndromeâ€â€”or, sometimes, just “Genovese Syndrome†or “Genovese Effect.â€
Social psychologists sometimes call it the “bystander effect.â€
Later analysis of the Genovese case would show that the media
misrepresented the facts somewhat. It’s not as though 38 people stood
calmly watching a brutal murder in broad daylight and simply went on
about their business.
This attack happened in the middle of the night
when it was dark, most people were in bed, and no one had a clear view
of the entire event. Some of the witnesses, for example, had merely
heard yelling and thought it might have been nothing more than an
argument.
At least one person apparently did call the police
immediately, but without realizing that the woman had actually been
stabbed—so the police didn’t respond with any urgency.
And perhaps,
even if an ambulance had arrived 5 minutes after the initial attack,
Kitty Genovese would still have died. So it’s plausible, at least, that
this particular case was not an example of apathetic bystanders—and
that Kitty Genovese Syndrome is a bit of a misnomer.
But it hardly matters what you call it or whether this single
tragedy could have been mitigated. The bystander effect, by whatever
name, is a very real and common occurrence.
In the years since, I’ve encountered situations in which I
might have been able to help someone in trouble, but didn’t. When I see
or hear something happening—or possibly happening—I feel confused,
afraid, frustrated.
Maybe the person isn’t in danger at all. Can I do anything about it if
they are? What about my own safety? Surely one of these other
bystanders is better qualified to help.
the police. And then, having stood there doing nothing while everyone
else was thinking the same thing, I feel tremendous guilt. By my
inaction, I’ve just experienced the Kitty Genovese Syndrome.