Bystander Debate

In the book Bystander, Eric, the protagonist, was a bystander, who noticed about bullying but, never did anything about it. Eric learned to take action for what is right to prevent from bullying and not be a bystander. As Eric realized that he was a bystander, he learned to stand up and confront the bullies.

In the book “Bystander by James Preller the main character Eric is a thirteen year old 7th grade boy who faces difficulties that change him as a person and how he views things. Eric’s parents get divorced causing his little brother Rudy, his mom and himself to move to Long Island from Ohio. Eric’s mom then enrolls Eric into a new school in which he does not fit into and he when he eventually fits in he finds the wrong friends.

The general statement made by the author, Anna Quindlen, in her work Getting Involved, is that it is vital for human beings to be apathetic, and care for one another. More specifically, the author argues that isolating oneself from local conflict will not resolve any issues. She writes, “Neighbors heard screams and shouts and the unmistakable sound of something hitting a human being…But nothing was really done until…[the] little girl was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.” In this passage, the author is suggesting that being a bystander is detrimental and can lead to severe, preventable outcomes. In conclusion, the author’s belief is a topic that need to be spoken upon more often, the society is in desperate need of compassion

This essay will ‘compare and contrast’ two approaches made in investigating the ‘bystander effect’. It will discuss in some depth as to what exactly is meant by the bystander effect, illustrating when this concept was first shown and why. An outline will be made of the different methods used, those being experiments and discourse analysis, explaining each one in turn, within the framework of two cases. The first being the murder of ‘Catherine Genovese,’ 1964.and the second ‘James Bulger’ 1993. The essay will then show examples of the differences and similarities between each method. Concluding with a summary of findings into the two approaches to investigating the Bystander Effect.

It is a challenge to reconcile human beliefs in compassion and morality with the actions, or inactions, of bystanders in the Holocaust. How is it possible that hundreds of thousands of people stood by while millions faced pain and suffering? Before exonerating or condemning all of them, it is necessary to consider the differences in bystanders. For the context of the Holocaust, a bystander is someone who was neither a target of the Nazis or a Nazi themselves. Putting all of these people in the same group is an oversimplification, because it ignores the power system in place during the Holocaust and the various positions of bystanders in that system. The wealthy business owner is not the same as the working-class mother of four. In this situation, one has considerable power and ability, and the other does not. Applying a blanket statement, and calling the latter unjust when they are ordinary people in a time of horrific war is contrary to reason. It is also necessary to consider the extent of bystander’s actions. Have their actions merely helped to ensure their own survival, or do they directly hurt Holocaust victims? The magnitude of each situation is varied. In conclusion, to gauge the morality of a bystander’s actions, they need to be judged on an individual basis, with two qualities in mind: that person’s ability to act and the effect of their actions.

Would one help some random person on the street in need? What if they were out in the frigid cold with no home or warm clothes? How about if the person was a woman getting physically harassed by her boyfriend? Most people would say “yes” to these questions, but would they actually help if any of these situations occurred in their lives? “The bystander effect is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present.” (Bystander Effect). Why is it that people do not help those in need? Isn’t that our duty as good citizens to help those in need? “The reason why people do not help those in need is because they believe somebody else will do something first.” (Heroic Imagination Project). This paper will cover the freezing child exercise, the New York City stabbing incident, and the physical abuse between a guy to a girl observation. All three different experiments will display the bystander effect in action with real people. These procedure will present the true faces of our society and expose the real heroes who would actually help those in need. The Bystander Effect causes people to stand by a misbehavior or a person in need presented by the procedure of the experiments, the results of the incident, and the reasoning for their actions.

Catherine Susan "Kitty" Genovese was a New York City woman who was stabbed to death and repeatedly raped near her home. Investigations recorded 38 witnesses, none of whom attempted to assist Kitty personally and only one whom called the police, afterwards stating “I didn’t want to get involved” The incident of “Kitty” Genovese’s death exemplifies the extraordinary lengths that humans can go in an attempt to prevent self-loss even at the cost of another’s far more severe personal loss. By not acting these neighbors failed to stand up for their moral code and in doing so failed to act on behalf of what they presumably believed to be right at the cost of another s life, this also establishes the ability of self-interest to not only drive conflict in the way that self-interest allowed the event to occur on the side of the attacker, who was likely motivated by lust or anger, but to also discourage opposing action in bystanders out of a fear of personal loss. The actions the witnesses of “Kitty’s“ fate took mirror the attitude of a large degree of the human populations attitudes. Historically, few stand up for their beliefs and moral code at great personal risk, the strength of self-preservation Is too strong for most , for every “hero” that acts, hundreds of bystanders fail to act. The existence of “heroes” Itself is evidence that humans often fail to act in times of conflict, after all if there was more people who acted

The bystanders ambling out front of the town hall were already near a minimum as all of the public offices in the area closed down by 2 p.m. on Saturdays. Inez was thankful for that, but that was also part of his plan all along. Lesser people would mean less questioning eyes on what it was he was doing. It did have a drawback, though… having the town hall empty. It didn’t help when it came to convincing as many minds as possible that their world wasn’t all what it seemed.

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the capability and practicability of a bystander education program in a college setting. Sexual and partner violence are a great concern that affect college-age women. Most sexual violence occurs in social activities involving other people and involving drug and alcohol intoxication. The social nature of sexual violence allows for an occasion for bystander to help prevent the sexual violence and be supportive of the victims. “Mental health nurses can use the principles of bystander education in prevention efforts and to support survivors.”(Amar, A. F., Sutherland, M., & Kesler, E., 2012, 851)

Knowing the personality characteristics of those who "speak up" helps us understand the phenomenon itself. From an applied perspective, the study of the personality determinants of bystander’s intervention helps us identify the individuals who we can rely on in situations that require intervention. We believe that entity theorists would agree with this statement. But the incremental theorists would bring a new light on this aspect: we can identify the individuals who we can rely on, but also we can develop individuals who can rely on. The students trained to confront bullying and discriminatory behaviors in school (Paluck, 2011) are the proof for this point of view.

Bystanders are everywhere. There is tens, hundreds, thousands of videos where people are there, but not doing anything during violence, physical and verbal. Being a bystander is lacking courage. Lacking the courage to even say one word. Teachers and students about courage in class, but people do not know what it is. Students are taught to be courageous, but not really. They are not taught how to courageous; students are taught the definition, to memorize and to forget. Everyone forgot what courage means when I needed them to remember it.

Moral Panic was first coined together by Jock Young in 1971 (Jones, 2012), it was then adopted by Stanley Cohen in 1972, criminologist, sociologist and author, in his book “Folk Devils and Moral Panics” Cohen said a moral panic occurs when “a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests”. (Cohen, 2002) The first stage of a Moral Panic as described by Stanley Cohen is when an individual or group are defined as a threat to the values and interests of society. The second stage is when the threat is depicted by the media causing panic to the public. The third - Rapid build-up of public concern. The fourth - Response from authorities and public opinion makers. Then finally the panic recedes or results in social changes. (Cohen, 2002) This assignment will explore the five key elements of a moral panic as

There are certain issues in society that have always bothered me, but in a bystander position, where I wouldn’t say anything because I thought to myself that I should not get involved with someone else’s problems or I felt that I wasn’t old enough to get enough or because I was just strictly too scared to get

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends" (King, n.d.). King's (n.d.) statement demonstrates the major internal impact bystanders can have on others. As a matter of fact, most people do not think about the possible long-term effects of not standing up for someone or something. Although it may not seem like a big deal to one person, it could be life changing to another. Many just consider a bystander to be someone who is present at an incident and doesn't take action, but there is actually much more to it. The term 'bystander' can be defined as someone who is present during corruption, doesn't speak up, and seems not to care about others.

Did you know that 1 in 5 students in the U.S. is either bullied or is a bully? However, bystanders are even guiltier than bullies! In the U.S. bystanders are much worse than bullies because they either join in, don’t stop it, or ignore it like nothing is happening!