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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bystander effect | 7/8 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T15:56:57.355289+00:00 | kb-cron |
On March 13, 1964, 28-year-old bartender Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was stabbed, sexually assaulted, and murdered while walking home from work at 3 a.m. in Queens, New York. The case is widely known for originally stimulating social psychological research into the "bystander effect". According to a sensationalized article in The New York Times, 38 witnesses watched the stabbings but did not intervene or even call the police until after the attacker fled and Genovese had died. The shocking account drew widespread public attention and many newspaper editorials. Psychology researchers Latané and Darley attributed the lack of help by witnesses to diffusion of responsibility: because each witness saw others witnessing the same event, they assumed that the others would be taking responsibility and calling the police, and therefore did nothing to stop the situation themselves. An article published in American Psychologist in 2007 found that the story of Genovese's murder had been exaggerated by the media. There were far fewer than 38 eyewitnesses, the police were called at least once during the attack, and many of the bystanders who overheard the attack could not actually see the event. In 2016, The New York Times called its own reporting "flawed", stating that the original story "grossly exaggerated the number of witnesses and what they had perceived".
=== Jane Doe of Richmond High ===
On October 24, 2009, a female student of at Richmond High School was gang-raped and beaten by a group of boys and men after a classmate invited her to a dark courtyard outside the school's homecoming dance. It was reported that she was treated politely and drank brandy with the group before the assault took place, which lasted two and a half hours before a young woman notified the police. As many as 20 people witnessed the incident, with several reportedly cheering and videotaping it. She was hospitalised for scrapes and bruises all over her face and body, and later sustained scars from cigarette burns on her back, as well as hips that regularly pop out of place. The case drew nationwide outrage in the United States.
=== Raymond Zack ===
On May 30, 2011 (Memorial Day), 53-year-old Raymond Zack, of Alameda, California, walked into the waters off Robert Crown Memorial Beach and stood neck deep in water roughly 150 yards offshore for almost an hour. His foster mother, Dolores Berry, called 9-1-1 and said that he was trying to drown himself. (There are conflicting reports about Zack's intentions.) Firefighters and police responded but did not enter the water. The firefighters called for a United States Coast Guard boat to respond to the scene. According to police reports, Alameda police expected the firefighters to enter the water. Firefighters later said that they did not have current training and certifications to perform land-based water rescue. Dozens of civilians on the beach, and watching from their homes across from the beach, did not enter the water, apparently expecting public safety officers to conduct a rescue. Eventually, Zack collapsed in the water, apparently from hypothermia. Even then, nobody entered the water for several minutes. Finally, a good samaritan entered the water and pulled Zack to shore. Zack died afterwards at a local hospital.
=== Piang Ngaih Don ===
In July 2016, a 24-year-old Myanmar citizen and domestic maid Piang Ngaih Don was abused and murdered by her employer Gaiyathiri Murugayan and Gaiyathiri's mother Prema S. Naraynasamy. Both Gaiyathiri and Prema were arrested and charged with murder, while a third accomplice, Gaiyathiri's husband Kevin Chelvam who was then a police officer, was also charged with maid abuse and his police duties were suspended in view of his criminal proceedings. Subsequently, Gaiyathiri was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment in June 2021 for a lower charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Prema was convicted of multiple charges of maid abuse and destroying evidence and sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment in 2023. The case invoked public outrage, shock and anger over the extensive cruelty of the case and death of the maid. Piang's case also demonstrated chilling similarities and comparisons to Kitty Genovese's murder and the existence of the bystander effect, as it was discovered that during the regular health-checks at the hospital and the maid agency, there were people who suspected that Piang may have been abused but Gaiyathiri and her family denied them; no police report was made in relation to these suspected signs of maid abuse.
=== Jane Doe of Philadelphia ===
On October 13, 2021, a passenger was sexually harassed and eventually raped by another rider on a SEPTA train in Philadelphia, with several bystanders in the area purportedly witnessing the incident, even allegedly recording the assault on their phones, and failing to alert authorities or stop the assault until one off-duty employee called 911 after boarding the train and noticing the attack. The sexual assault, which went on for nearly 40 minutes, as well as the passengers' apparent lack of action, was recorded on SEPTA surveillance video. After the initial 911 call, a SEPTA officer boarded the train when it arrived at the 69th Street Transportation Center, arresting the suspect after pulling him off the victim. This assault gained international attention for the passengers' apparent lack of action, though some scholars argued that the bystanders simply did not know what to do in that instance. According to SEPTA general manager Leslie Richards, the arrest occurred 3 minutes after the initial 911 call, which happened after the victim had been harassed for more than half an hour. The organization eventually released a statement, saying, "There were other people on the train who witnessed this horrific act, and it may have been stopped sooner if a rider called 911." However, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer refuted the claim that the bystanders were filming the assault, countering that many of the bystanders may not have understood what they were seeing.