Safety Tips for Women:
BYSTANDER APATHY
&
BYSTANDER EFFECT

A patient with a knife recently attacked a doctor in Boston. An off-duty security guard came to his rescue by shooting the assailant and saved the doctor’s life.

That same month, a 15 year-old girl in California was gang-raped by four men. 20 witnesses did nothing to help as they watched and used cell phones to take pictures and video of the rape.

How would YOU avoid Bystander Apathy when YOU desperately need help?

The two incidents described above involved many co-variables. Primarily, in Massachusetts it was a security guard; in California it was drunken kids. And yes, the bystander apathy of those kids, though drunken, should be penalized somehow – perhaps with misdemeanor “gross indifference to human compassion” or some such charge. At least they’d be publicly named and shamed.

Then there’s the pervasive nationwide dilemma of “the thugs and ‘no-snitch’ bullies who command a code of silence to preserve THEIR freedom.” The law requires that witnesses be named in court documents (so defendants can face their accusers). The accused gangsters’ cohorts can then easily intimidate the witnesses (and their families) into silence. Witness protection programs do little to alleviate the Bystander Effect.

But there’s also a new twist on the nationwide CrimeStoppers tip program that just might help with the “no-snitch” bystander effect problem. Boston heavily promotes cellphone texting for crime tips. Since the program began two years ago, police have received more than 1,000 tips.

But all that is after the fact and doesn't help when you're up to your eyeballs in trouble. Learn how to avoid the bystander effect (a.k.a. the Kitty Genovese Syndrome) when YOU desperately need help:

See Kitty Genovese - Article Bank. Also see Newsletter-24-Mar-09 - Bystander Effect and Outdoor Safety - Rescuing a Victim Safely.

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