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Calculate The Consequences Of Bystander Law By Jack Sanders

897 Words4 Pages

Calculate the Consequences Being a bystander can save your life. Whilst seeing two young boys walking in the cold weather, a generous 17-year-old, Jack Sanders, offers these boys a ride and what seemed harmless at the time, turned out to be lethal for Sanders. The two boys attempt to carjack him and shoot Sanders, ending his life. This is just one of the plenty of dangerous outcomes that may come with lending a helping hand and is an example of why the bystander law should not be enforced. The bystander law forces people to intervene when someone is in danger, but does that mean you have to put yourself in danger too? Jack Sanders’ story shows how dangerous it can be to put yourself out there. The bystander law originates from the phenomenon …show more content…

Crowds seem to diffuse everyone’s moral responsibility, which results in no one intervening. The bystander law would force witnesses to report or intervene when someone is in the middle of an emergency. When it comes to the topic of the bystander law, most people believe that it is immoral for one not to intervene when someone else is in possible peril. This argument begs the question, what does peril mean? Recent and past news events involving bystanders who witness but do not report or help victims in crisis have led concerned citizens in the state of California, and across the country, to lobby their state representatives to create stronger Good Samaritan laws. However, the state of California should not have a law that requires an individual to “report or assist” a person in trouble or need or face serious criminal charges, jail time, and/or fine because the law is ambiguous and does not state the true extent that it will have, people will become more scared of speaking up in fear of being prosecuted, and in several situations, it …show more content…

There’s a chance that the number of good samaritans declines because of people’s worries. Ultimately, the question is; will the bystander law do more harm than good? Admittingly, some would argue that the law would inspire individuals to stand up for someone in need; nevertheless, different individuals are prone to have their reasons for not wanting to suffer the consequences of intervening. “When Will People Help In a Crisis” points out that, “Instead, we often find that a bystander to an emergency is an anguished individual in genuine doubt, wanting to do the right thing but compelled to make complex decisions under the pressure of stress and fear.” In other words, not every bystander is necessarily an immoral human being, most are just doing what they feel is best in the situation they were

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The purpose of the news article "38 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police" by Martin Gansberg is to inform the reader of a murder that occurred in England because of the inaction taken by bystanders. This article also Informs about a now well-known phycological effect called the "Bystander Effect". First, the author uses the diction "39 RESPECTABLE, law-abiding citizens..." To emphasize that this event was not committed by people who were malicious as their actions may indicate. The author chose his words to give a grabbing sense of this can happen anywhere even to the reader.

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In “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police”, Martin Gansberg writes about the reaction of thirty-eight citizens who witnessed the murder of Kitty Genovese. The neighbors had similar reactions saying they didn’t want to be involved, or just didn’t care enough. Although his thesis wasn’t direct, his argument showed that people need to take action when witnessing violent crimes and how their actions affect someone’s life. One phone call could’ve changed the way that night turned out.

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Some believe that bystanders are innocent, because they aren't the ones causing the pain. However they still witness what is going on around them, while watching others suffer. In “The Harvest Gypsies” John Steinbeck says, “The better dressed children shout and jeer, the teachers are quite often impatient”(John Sternbeck). This shows how just a little words and actions can affect people or add on to the problem. In “Killers of the Dream” Lillian Smith expresses, “Some learned to screen out all except the soft and the soothing; others denied even as they saw plainly and heard”(Lillian Smith).

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Every day many of us are faced with the question, “Should I step in and help?”. Some of us immediately think yes and jump in to help, while others believe it is better to keep walking. The bystander effect happens when a person does not stop and help because they think someone else will. In these situations, some people stand up and respond to the crisis, because they are not worried about what will happen to them, but what will happen to the person in crisis instead. In the novel Night and the poem “The Hangman”, the bystander effect took place because people were afraid to bring attention to themselves.

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In particular, a benefit that would result from the law is that it will encourage citizens to take action and help the individuals that are in desperate need. When people begin to make better choices and become involved, many innocent lives will be saved. In addition to this, the article “If Decency Doesn’t, Law Should Make Us Samaritans” by Gloria Allred and Lisa Bloom, the authors assert that “The real reason individuals do not reach out is because they feel disconnected from strangers in need... If each of us recognized a moral responsibility to come to the aid of others, we would all gain the benefits of a stronger and safer community” (Allred and Bloom 2). This quote says that people do not help others in need because they are not close to each other but if a federal law was created that said they were obligated to give assistance to those in imminent danger, everyone would benefit from it and communities would be much safer. Despite the fact that someone who is in a crisis and is in need of help might be a stranger, that should be no excuse for one to not lend a hand.

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Many inhumane acts are occurring every day whether you know it or not, but those that do know has the choice to be a bystander or to help them and speak out. Their decision and actions plays a big role in these situations. Many often chooses to stay silent, but that may be the most dangerous thing to do. Even though there are some cons to speaking out, it could save a person’s life and prevent it from happening again. One may think that it’s not their responsibility to help the victim, but that is not exactly true.

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Starting off, Silver mentions a factoid about a specific law instituted in many states on how “Good Samaritans are protected from liability if their well-intentioned efforts inadvertently result in harm,” however there is a flaw on how, “the callous bystander who refuses to render even minimal help in a dire emergency — goes unpunished” (Silver 1). By introducing the contrast between the law and its effects, it clearly points out that Silver wants different results for the virtuous and the wrong. Also, for what is asked for from Silver clearly presents his defense towards the good samaritans, about how they should be defended no matter what they could have done to the victim. Additionally towards the bad samaritans or the bystanders, Silver does not call for those people and he does that by requesting a law to “simply require warning someone of imminent danger or calling 911” (Silver 1). This openly demonstrates what Silver would want to merely have the society do in case of an emergency, through the law.

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Detectives investigating Genovese's murder discovered that no fewer than 38 of her neighbors had witnessed at least one of her killer's three attacks but had neither come to her aid nor called the police (Michael Dorman). This piece of information ties to the bystander effect, especially because it shows that amongst the large group of bystanders (her neighbors), not one tried to stop or help the situation. Recent and past news events involving bystanders who witness but do not report or help victims in crisis have led concerned citizens in the state of California, and across the country, to lobby their state representatives to create stronger Good Samaritan laws. My own view is the state of California needs a new bystander law that would require an individual to report or assist another person in imminent danger or peril or face substantial fines, possible jail time, and/or both, if they can do so without putting themselves or others in danger because It will decrease crime since people will be less likely to commit crimes and hurt other people when they know someone will report it, if one person helps it means more people will be more likely to help

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Bystander behaviour can generally be described as the actions people take when they witness an emergency situation in a public place. There have been many studies on bystander behaviour, this essay will explore two approaches to explain this behaviour. It will look at the experimental method performed by Latané and Darley and at the discourse analysis done by Levine. First the essay will describe and outline the methods.after that it will examine the similarities as well as the contrast between those techniques. Latané and Darley did their research on bystander behaviour in the aftermath of the murder case of Catherine `Kitty´ Genovese,which happened in the Suburbs of New York in 1964.

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Not one person did anything and they let her bleed to death. This horrible tragedy should have never been let get to the extent that it did. What kind of a human being watches another’s life being taken away and does nothing. The devastating murder of Kitty Genovese was a great example of the bystander effect. What is the bystander

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If you are a bystander you have to try to help the person getting prosicuted. This can be seen in To Kill A Mockingbird, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, an Killers of a Dream. If you are a bystander then you´re not innocent because you could be watching someone suffer and in pain. If you are a bystander then you´re not innocent because you could be watching someone suffer and in pain. People in WW11 would watch Hitler Prosicute Jewish poeple but not do anything about it just becuase they were scared.

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The Bystander Effect: A Result of a Human Drive Repetitive cries and screams for help were heard in Kew Gardens, New York on the Friday night of March 13th in 1964. As the 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was approaching her doorstep, an attacker –Winston Moseley- came from behind and started to stab her repeatedly. Despite her loud calls for help, turning on the bedroom lights along the neighborhood is all what her calls were capable of. None of the thirty nearby neighbors wanted to go under the spotlight of answering the call of duty so it wasn’t before 20 minutes when the anonymous hero that lived next door decided to call the police. It was four years later when our victim’s story became the perfect example to explain the social psychological

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Both Latané and Darley 's use of the experimental method and Levine 's use of discourse analysis aim to gain insight as to why the bystander phenomenon occurs, and are interested in why humans seemingly go against their better nature and choose not to help others. (The Open University, 2015a) Latané and Darley 's(1970) cited in Byford, (2014, p.229) experiment consisted of a lab-controlled test and used their quantitative results in order to understand the bystander effect and concluded that people are significantly less likely to respond when in the “passive confederate condition” and most likely to respond when in the “alone condition.” Levine 's (1999) cited in Byford (2014, p.236) viewing of qualitative evidence meant that he was able to determine factors he felt led to the explanation of this effect, such as the examination of the Bulger case and others ' feeling as though they should not become involved in family matters. Both of these experiments were conducted in order to more clearly understand Bystander behaviour and the reasons

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The bystander effect states that during an occurrence or a crisis, the more observers there are, the less

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In 1984 by George Orwell, the dystopian trait of outcasts of society is most prominent because throughout the novel Winston feels as though he is the only one who finds flaws with the Party and thinks he is alone in his beliefs. One instance of this trait is towards the beginning of the book when Winston begins to contemplate the morals of the Party and recognizes he has different thoughts compared to everyone else in the Party. Page 125 states, “Anything that hinted at corruption always filled him with a wild hope. Who knew? Perhaps the Party was rotten under the surface, its cult of strenuousness and self-denial simply a sham concealing iniquity.”

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