After reading, "Thirty-Eight- Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police" by Martin Gansberg, I was completely shook and confused as to why about 40 people didn’t report this to the police. It just sounds so inhumane and insane to see someone being stabbed and not helping. How can 38 people watching this bloody scene be okay with it and not call the police department? In the article, it mentioned that the investigator said that even if one person had called the police, she could have been saved. If I were in a similar situation, I would have immediately called the police and ambulance regardless of my condition or what time it is. In the article, one man said that he was simply “too tired” to call. How can someone lack so much care and sympathy
On the night of August 20, 1989 Lyle, age 21, and Erik Menendez, age 18, shot their parents, Jose and Kitty, to death with a 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun in the den of the family’s Beverly Hills, California, home. After committing the murders they drove to Mulholland Drive, where they dumped the shot guns. They went to a local movie theater to buy tickets as an alibi. After attending the show, they returned home when Lyle frantically contacted the Beverly Hills police department and cried “Somebody killed my parents!”. The BHPD showed up to find a gruesome crime scene. They shot their father, Jose, twice. The first shot hit him in the left arm the second was a point blank shot to the back of the skull. The boy's mother, Kitty, made a desperate
In the early morning hours of March 13, 1964, twenty-eight year old barmaid Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was murdered and raped on the street in Kew Gardens, New York. The incident did not initially receive much attention until Martin Gansberg's infamous article, "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder, Didn't Call the Police", was published in the New York Times two weeks later. In reality, only twelve people witnessed the event yet each did nothing to significantly help Genovese until it was too late. The Genovese murder has become the definitive example of the "bystander effect", the social phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to help someone in distress if there are other people present. The bystander effect occurs wherever there is
The study by Darley and Latane leaves society with the knowledge that everyone who is witnessing an emergency is most likely thinking the same thing “someone else will call for help or has already” so “Always act as if you are the only person there” (Darely & Latane, 1968). The concept of situationism is the driving force behind bystander effect. Situationism is “social behavior is, to a larger extent than people commonly realize, a response to people’s social context, not a function of individual personality” (Fiske, 2010, p. 7). Individuals first have to decide if they are witnessing an emergency. Then they need to decide if they have a responsibility to act which is when situationism comes in. If there are hundreds of witnesses each individual see the situation from a different perspective and responsibility to act is diffused among the crowd. On the other hand if one individual sees an emergency and believes there is no one else to help the responsibility rests on him or her. The context of the situation will determine how an individual will react, but people should consider the reality of everyone believing someone else will react and no one reacting. Kitty Genovese would still be alive if even one person would have called the cops when the first attack started.
An eyewitness told police that he contemplated calling the police and instead called a friend to get advice on what he should do. The man crossed the apartment building and had an elderly women make the call. The man sheepishly told the police “ I didn’t want to get involved” (Gansberg, 1964).
Viewers across the nation are affected by the social media causing stress on the subject by bombarding the public with media stories, rumors and “a sense of mass panic”. Victims have to relive that horrible moment because the media wants to
Violent crimes also occur in areas of higher population densities and victims usually report the crime if committed by a stranger (Carleton, 2017a). This article somewhat matches with the course materials. Yes, the hit-and-run was in a denser city, but the driver is a stranger, this was in public and Jamie is older. Plus, Jamie died so he couldn't report the victimization to the
Journalist Martin Gansberg authors the article “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police” reconstructs the murder of Ms. Catherine, a.k.a. Kitty, Genovese. All thirty-eight witnesses refrained from calling the police to aid the dying woman. Gansberg exposes the ugly truth about what results when a group of people or a society becomes apathetic and self-preserving. Society is selfish that watching others to be harmed and or killed is not significant enough to speak against or alert someone else to injustices.
You have a right to intervene when you see a violent crime happening. Of course you could simply call 911 but why when you could just stop the crime happening right then and there. I mean wouldn’t you want help if you were in trouble?, wouldn’t you want someone to stop the bad guy or whatever the case is?, i’m pretty sure you would want help right? Yes exactly so if you see any crime or anything you should help people that need
Is it the correct thing to do and our duty as humans to help each other out? In the article, “The Killing of Kitty Genovese” by Michael Dorman, the author describes how a young woman named Kitty Genovese was stabbed while 38 neighbors watched from above. One man yelled out, “Let that girl alone.” In effect, the predator walked away. Immediately after the neighbors closed their windows he came ferociously and stabbed her four more times until she eventually bled out and died. Overall, in this situation was it truly that hard to pick up a cell phone and phone the police? The failure to take action can lead to many more fatalities and injuries in the long run as it did in the case of Kitty Genovese.
Martin Gansberg in his article “Thirty-eight Who Saw Murder and Didn’t call the Police” uses irony to prove to the readers that the witnesses didn’t care about the murder of Miss Genoves. An example of irony is when the Assistant Chief Inspector Frederick M. Lussen states “...but because the “good people” failed to call the police”. This is ironic because if the people were indeed good they would have called the law enforcement and not just let Mrs. Genoves get stabbed three times and die. They heard noises and some even got a glimpse of the assailant but not one person called the police. Even them not calling the police is ironic because most people call the police when they hear a disturbance or a commotion near them. “Oh my God he stabbed
Darley and Latane, use the concept of diffusion of responsibility to explain the psychology behind why no one stepped in to help in either scenarios. According to Slater, diffusion of responsibility is explained as “The more people witnessing an event, the less responsible any one individual feels and, indeed, is because responsibility is evenly distributed among the crowd” (Slater, 102). Basically, the greater amount of spectators decreases the chances for the an individual to aid the victim in an emergency situation. A sole witness is less likely to respond if there are multiple witnesses around in comparison to scenario being one on one. The reason being that, the individual no longer feels as though they are the only ones responsible considering multiple witnesses are now as involved as they are.
Have you ever seen an incident happen and not do anything about it? Well in “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police”, thirty-eight people saw a murder happen and decide not to do anything about it. By watching an incident happen and not intervene is called the bystander effect this is where you watch an event happen and do nothing because you feel like it’s none of your business or because someone else isn’t helping why should you. In this essay the writer explains an incident that happened and how people witnessed it but didn’t do anything making them bystanders.
This is an ADD report to Officer Harrell’s #3441, PC 664/187 – Attempt Murder report.
How does “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call The Police” and “Fame-iness” address people’s response to what celebrities and the public do? Unfortunately, nowadays, people do become famous for scandals and blunders, and not accomplishments. Not only do they rise to fame, but, quite frankly, most of the famous people in the current world are people we’ve never heard of? It has always been known that if a person is easily recognized and noticed on the street, popular to the public, or even a reputable person who has a tiny bit of an influence on the people then that person get to be called famous. More likely, to be listed under the list of “Hall of Fames.” Unlike people out there twenty four/ seven on television
In the picture you see a dead corpse on the ground. The guy on the ground has probably been murdered by a murder. Next to the dead body a woman is screaming out loud because she realizes the man is dead. Furthermore are the other people a bit confused. The woman looks very desperate due to the fact the man isn't alive anymore, it might be an acquaintance, and now she doesn't know how she needs to get on with her life. It's a bit weird that no one, in my opinion, is calling 911. Maybe they have already been called, but you can't spot at the moment the picture has been taken any police officers,