The Bystander Effect And Bullying

“Even though most bystanders don’t like to watch bullying, less than 20% try to stop it” (Bullying Statistics 1). Bullying occurs in almost every school in the United States of America. A lot of the time, the victims or people who witness the incident refrain from reporting it because they fear what the bully might do in return. Most of the time, when people think about bullying, they just picture the bully and the victim, but the situation involves another person: the bystander. Almost every incident that occurs involving bullies have people to witness it. Contrary to the belief that bystanders have no real involvement in these situations, many people do believe that bystanders should step up and help. However, many bystanders remain …show more content…
People believe that the bystander does not have any part of the situation. Many people also believe that when people are around, the bully will choose not to attack. This is not true, however, because there is a phenomenon called “the Bystander Effect”. This phenomenon states that “greater the number of people present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress” (“What is the Bystander Effect?” 1). Knowing this, it would show that the bully will more likely attack when many people surround them because less people will retaliate. Along with believing that the bully will not attack with bystanders around, people also believe that bullying rates have gone down. “64 percent of children who were bullied did not report it; only 36 percent reported the bullying.” (Petrosina, Guckenburg, DeVoe, and Hanson, 2010). So, we do not exactly know how much bullying rates have gone down because the majority of the victims do not report the incident. People in today’s culture can and should step up to help other people that become the target for a bully and his or her