Bystander Effect & The Murder of Kitty Genovese

Bystander Effect

The bystander effect happens when there are many people around, and each person feels less responsible for helping someone in danger. This means that the more people there are, the less likely it is that anyone will help. It's also called the "bystander effect." Usually, in uncertain situations, people look at others to see what to do. But when everyone is doing this, they might end up not helping at all.

 

 

 

The Murder of Kitty Genovese

On March 13, 1964, in Queens, New York, a woman named Catherine (Kitty) Genovese was brutally raped and murdered by a robber. This incident is a well-known example of the bystander effect. It inspired the South Korean band Nell to compose the song "Dear Genovese" on their sixth album, "Newton's Apple," and has been used as a backdrop in various media.

 

Incident Details

On Friday, March 13, 1964, at around 3 a.m., Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old woman, was returning home after her night shift as a manager at a bar in Queens, New York. As she was walking home, a suspicious man attacked and stabbed her . Genovese screamed, and the neighborhood residents, who lived in nearby apartments, turned on their lights and watched the incident unfold. The attacker, later identified as Winston Moseley, later testified in court that while many lights turned on, he didn't feel like anyone would come down to help.

 

One of the onlookers, instead of coming to help, shouted, "Leave that girl alone!" causing Moseley to flee temporarily. Genovese, wounded, managed to drag herself in front of a nearby store . Moseley returned and stabbed her multiple times again. Despite her continuous screams and the lights turning on again in the apartments, no one came to her aid, and Moseley fled once more . Genovese struggled to make her way to the hallway of her apartment building. A few minutes later, Moseley returned and raped her . This attack lasted about 35 minutes, from 3:15 to 3:50 a.m. A total of 38 people witnessed the incident from their apartments, but none of them went down to help Genovese directly . After the attack was over, one person finally called the police, but Genovese had already died.

 

Later investigations by Kitty Genovese’s brother revealed that the number of witnesses reported was an error by a New York Times journalist, and in reality, only six people saw the incident, two of whom did attempt to call the police. In 2016, The New York Times admitted that their earlier report was incorrect .

 

Impact of the Details

Initially, the New York Times published a very short four-line article about the murder. However, the section editor, A.M. Rosenthal, later revised the story, claiming that 38 people had witnessed the incident and did nothing to help . This was, however, a major distortion of the actual events . Psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané became interested in the case and conducted psychological experiments related to the bystander effect.