On the evening of March 27th 1964 Ms Kitty Genovese was walking home to her apartment in Austin Street, Queens.
As she reached the apartment block she was attacked and stabbed. Her screams could be heard by the other 37 residents of the block, and scared off her attacker, but nobody called the police or came out of their apartments to help her.
Her attacker returned shortly afterwards, stabbing her for a second time. One of the residents, on hearing her screams, shouted out of a window at Kitty’s attacker to keep the noise down. He shrugged his shoulders and returned to his car. Kitty dragged herself to the entrance of her apartment block in Austin Street.
Her attacker returned and checked the first door. Kitty wasn’t there. He checked the second door and found Kitty dragging herself down the hallway where he stabbed her for a third time.
Police were finally called at 3:50am by one of Kitty’s neighbours. They arrived within two minutes to find Kitty dead. The Inspector who lead the murder hunt was astonished that 37 people failed to call the police in time to save Kitty. So why did they fail to act?
Psychologists Latane and Darley conducted various experiments to find an answer. They discovered that it was because there were so many people in the block that the residents failed to act. They used the term “bystander apathy” to explain their ‘diffusion of responsibility’, i.e. denial of personal responsibility and the belief that someone else would probably do what was necessary.
Latane and Darley concluded that the more bystanders present, the lower the probability that any one of them would accept personal responsibility and act accordingly.
Winston Moseley, a married father of two, was arrested six days later for Kitty’s murder and sent to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation.
How do you feel about these findings and the lack of action from Kitty’s neighbours?
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