Kitty Genovese Research Paper

Can someone intentionally walk away from a person in distress on the street? People assume that onlookers nearby will help the distressed person by assisting or phoning emergency services. Yet, most people will not lend a helping hand. For example, in 1964, there was a bizarre crime in New York City; a young woman named Catherine Genovese, commonly called Kitty, was murdered and thirty-eight onlookers witnessed the act and yet nobody came to her assistance or phoned the emergency services. Despite several people witnessing the incident, what is the reason why nobody assisted the woman? The witnesses do not want to be involved in a crime because of their apathy. “If you educate a group of people about the concepts of social cuing, pluralistic …show more content…
The experiments were testing the conditions, essentially why people would ignore the cries of one another for aid, and the circumstances where compassion embraces sway (Slater 93). They had been careful in setting up the temporary situations; therefore, mimicked the murder of Genovese. In the murder case, the witnesses saw each other, but they did not communicate since the glass panels separated them. The fact stipulates that people are often reluctant to assist and intervene to an individual who needs help, especially when other people are inexistent to each other. The bystander effect has given an explanation on why people are less willing to help a person in distress, especially when other people are present. Otherwise, individuals are concerned about being evaluated negatively for taking part in the altruistic behavior, when the costs of assisting outweigh those associated to not assisting, and when people are unable to find out a person in need. Moreover, the bystander effect gives implication to reduce its