Justfindit.se Magazine

Kitty Genovese and the Genovese syndrome

Kitty Genovese and the Genovese syndrome. Instead of helping, people are paralyzed in urgent situations when people need their help in some kind of danger.

Very often we are trying to think if and how people can help each other in difficult situation. What we actually mean is the situations where someone is exposed to some kind of physical violence. Is it easy to help? Can people be emotionless in that kind of situations? Are they paralyzed in urgent situations, when someone is in some danger?

Well, a German podcast about Kitty Genovese inspired us to write something little about this theme. We found it interesting and also somehow educational. A physical violence can be very dangerous as a situation where we are expected to act. Helping some victim is not always easy, especially when there is physical violence.

What is the Kitty Genovese case about? It is about a 28 year old female bartender who was raped and stabbed outside the apartment building where she lived in New York city. It happened in early hours on March 13th, 1964.

In this horrible case we can see the phenomenon called the Bystander Effect or the Genovese Syndrome. It attempts to explain why someone witnessing a crime does not help the victim.

At that time it was reported that 38 bystanders watched or heard the attack. They chose to rely on others to do some intervention or call the police.

Later on, it has been revealed that the number of bystanders was much lower than what was reported from the start. However this story continues to live on and we can still use it as an illustration for this phenomenon. The Genovese syndrome is when people are paralyzed instead of trying to help in urgent situations when people need their help in some kind of danger.