In 1964 a 28 year old woman by the name of Catherine Genovese was murdered and raped in Queens New York by Winston Moseley (Gado, 2014). 38 people had witness the assault and murder of Catherine Genovese (Gado, 2014). The witnesses lived in the apartment buildings across the street, and also in her own apartment building (Gado, 2014). “We thought it was a lover’s quarrel,” “I thought they were some kids having some fun,” and “These things happen all over the world, the stories were only giving us a black eye,” were heard from the witnesses when interviewed (Gada, 2014). Other witnesses said, “Frankly, we were afraid,” “I didn’t want my husband to get involved,” “We went to the window to see what was happening, but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to see the street,” and “I was tired (Gada, 2014).” One witness wanted to call the police but his wife stopped him, “I told him there must have been 30 calls already (Gada, 2014).” Why the hesitation?
Stimulus overload is defined as a concept used to describe a condition where our own nervous system becomes overwhelmed to the point that we no longer can simultaneously respond to everything that is occurring in our environment (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Because of stimulus overload we prioritize and select where we want to focus our attention in an effort to adapt and overcome stimulus overload (Schneider et al., 2012). There are six psychological retreats used to adapt stimulus overload: (1) rushing through social situations, (2) prioritize what we pay attention to, (3) set up structures to take out the personal element, (4) erect barriers to social interactions, (5) we use filters, and (6) we created specialized agencies to deal with particular problems (Schneider et al., 2012). All six of these psychological retreats play into the diffusion of responsibility (observers do not help because they believe others who are observing are helping) which ultimately plays into the bystander effect (multiple people witness an emergency situation and fail to intervene) (Schneider et al., 2012). It is clearly evident the 38 witnesses who failed to intervene in the Catherine Genovese case suffered from stimulus overload, and the diffusion of responsibility. How can this be changed? First, I fully believe knowledge and education is the key.
For the past couple years, sexual assault has been hitting sky level statistics in the military. As a certified Department of Defense (DoD) Uniformed Victim Advocate (UVA), I have seen a change in the teaching strategies within the United States Marine Corps (USMC) with regards to sexual assault prevention. For years we would receive basic annual training on sexual assault. This training would provide our Marines and Sailors the basic information on defining sexual assault, defining consent, and the victim reporting options and procedures. Over the course of the last few years, however, the training has become more tailored. For example, our Non-Commissioned Officers (Corporals (E4) and Sergeants (E5)) are required to participate in “Take a Stand” training which essentially teaches them how to effectively be a leader and provide basic training in bystander intervention techniques in an attempt to prevent sexual assault. This year (2014) the Marine Corps has taken it a step further and has made it mandatory that our Lance Corporals and below (E1-E3) receive specific training that is centered on the bystander intervention techniques.
The bystander intervention techniques that are taught to our young Marines in detail are (1) direct, (2) distract, (3) delegate. With the direct technique, the bystander literally steps in to intervene. “Hey man, you really should leave her alone. I see how you are treating her and I can tell she does not like it.” Through the distraction technique, the bystander distracts the perpetrator in some way such as, “Hey! Is that the lead singer of Kiss over there?!” in order to remove the perpetrator from the situation, or to remove the potential victim. Through the delegate technique the bystander grabs help. Someone whom he/she feels can successfully dissolve the situation before it takes place. It can be a bouncer, bartender, a friend of the perpetrator, or even a friend of the potential victim.
Would any of these techniques – if used – have been successful at stopping Catherine Genovese’s assailant? I believe so. Her murderer had been distracted initially when one of the witnesses yelled down, “Hey, leave that girl alone (Gada, 2014)!” The assailant fled the scene and then returned to continue with his intentions to murder and rape Catherine Genovese (Gada, 2014). Had the spouse told her husband (delegate) to call the police instead of staying out of it – Catherine Genovese would probably have survived that evening (Gada, 2014). Despite the assailant being armed with a knife, had one of the neighbors went downstairs and directly intervened, she also would probably have survived the attack.
In conclusion – I strongly believe we need to be teaching bystander intervention techniques not just at the college level, but also in the high school level to ensure the education is reaching everyone. The techniques do work when properly executed, but in order for proper execution – one must be taught how to use them.
References
Grado, M. (2014). The Kitty Genovese Murder. Crime Library. Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc.
Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (Second ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
This was a very interesting way of using a famous incident of bystander effect and relating it to peoples everyday lives. While I am not in the military I do agree with the techniques they are teaching to avoid the bystander effect. Most people, as seen in the Catherine Genovese incident, express different reasons for not intervening on an incident. I believe that stimulus overload is a major reason that these people are falling into bystander effect. I also think that the bystander effect has a lot to do with how many bystanders there were. Such as in Catherine Genovese case, there were a lot of people that witnessed this happening and none of them helped. “The greater the number of bystanders who witness an emergency, the less likely any one of them is to help a victim.” (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2013 ) While interventions on how to stop the bystander effect would be helpful, I believe that these interventions should include information on why it is important to help even if you feel that others have helped. For example in the Catherine Genovese case, there were people that did not help because they thought others helped. If these people would have been informed on why it is important to help they would have known that even if them and everyone else watching this happen were to call 911 they would still be helping. “Each bystander’s sense of responsibility to help decreases as the number of witness increases.” (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2013) I also agree with how you said distracting the perpetrator would help. People do not always know how to help therefor they do not help. If people are informed of the outcome using distraction they might be more likely to use distraction in an emergency situation that would be appropriate to use it. For instance, in Catherine Genovese case distraction would have probably worked, but in a case where someone is having a hearth attack distraction would have not worked. “If people don’t know of what type of assistance to give, obviously they will be unable to help.” (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2013 ) This is why I think that interventions should include a variety of different type of assistances that can be giving in a variety of situations. This will allow people to be more informed of types of help that they can give depending on the situation they are witnessing.
Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (2013). Social Psychology (8th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall