Darley And Latane Kidnapping Research Paper

An example of the bystander effect that Darley and Latane coined is the kidnapping and torturing of Ilan Halimi. Halimi was a Jewish cellphone sales man in Paris, France. On January 21st, 2006 Halimi met with a date whom he thought was interested in him, but was actually setting him up to be taken by a group called “Gang of Barbarians”. For 24 days, Halimi was burnt with cigarettes, acid, and gasoline. His captures burned, beat, and stabbed him all over his body. With broken fingers and a duct taped face for eating and breathing only, the Gang of Barbarians contacted Halima’s family with videos of the maimed and suffering Halimi in demand of a 450,000 euros ($511,020 USD) ransom. Allegedly, the gang saw Halimi as an opportunity for money solely because he was Jewish. However, since Halimi had been unusually missing for so long, his family had already been in contact with the local Paris police, so the police took over the communication with the unknown gang and would not give into the ransom. Not knowing they were dealing with an anti-Semitic crime because they decided to keep the kidnapping amongst themselves instead of asking other branches of jurisdiction for leads, the Paris police waited for the

Ilan Halimi was found on February 13th, 2006 bound to a tree, naked and so badly beaten he was unrecognizable. “More than 80% of his body had been burned… He had severe contusions, blood blisters, and hematomas covering most of his body, to the point that he was more blue than flesh-colored, multiple broken bones, one ear and one big toe missing, and his testicles looked like ‘blackened oranges’ (Listverse).” The woman that found Halimi did what no one in the 24 days that he was in an apartment building full of people would do; she immediately called the