Do People Really Not Care

DO PEOPLE REALLY NOT CARE?

Forty-six years after the rape and brutal murder of Kitty Genovese, the people of New York City are asking the same questions they asked in 1964.   How could a man who did a good deed be left to die on the streets of the city and no one came to his aid?   According to ABC News, some experts are saying this behavior is due to city living, or it is America’s desensitization to violence because of the overexposure to violent music, video games, Television, and movies. These deaths occurred forty-six years apart, but the lack of help and the indifference to these victims cannot be blamed on the media.

Kitty Genovese was a twenty-eight year old Italian American who lived with her girlfriend in the predominately Jewish community of Kew Gardens, in Queens, New York. On the morning of March 13, 1964, Ms. Genovese returned home from work around 3:20 AM when she was raped and stabbed. Kitty’s cries for help went unaided, even though thirty-eight of her neighbors watched and listen to her screams for help for half an hour. (Gansberg, M 1964).When the neighbors were asked why they didn’t intervene, they said that “they were afraid or they thought it was a lover’s quarrel.” One man was tired so he went to bed, and another woman admitted that she didn’t want her husband involved. (Zeitz, J 2006).
In 1968, social psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latane came up with the concept of diffusion of responsibility, as a possible explanation for the bystander effect. They conducted a study to test the hypothesis that the larger the number of people who witness an emergency, the less likely they are to help. ( McCurry, Kristen).   In one experiment, a group of college students were placed in cubicles and they heard another student having an epileptic fit. When the students thought they were the only ones who heard the cry for help, 85% of them went to the help. In the scenario, where there were two students involved only 65% offered assistance. In...