Awful things happen every day… it’s inevitable. From the bombing in Paris to the mass shooting in Las Vegas, our world is consistently showing us the darker side of humanity. In a world filled with so much good, such devastating events can be hard to comprehend. People who are not directly exposed to the darker side of humanity have a harder time understanding the lasting effects. They know of the horrendous things happening but don’t know the feeling of actually being in the situation. To live in a world filled with only good, we must get rid of the preventable disastrous situations that occur by overcoming the bystander effect.
A bystander is defined as someone who is present at an event or incident but does not take part. An upstander
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The bystander effect (also called the Genovese Syndrome) is defined as the reluctance of members of a crowd to intervene in an incident they are witnessing. This is best represented through the case of Kitty Genovese. Kitty Genovese, a twenty-eight year old woman, was walking home from her work at a bar at three in the morning. Winston Moseley followed her and when she began running, he chased her and stabbed her twice in the back. As she screamed out for help, Moseley ran away and her neighbors heard her cries and did nothing. Kitty was able to get to the back door of her building but it ended up being locked. With the amount of blood she had lost, she couldn’t get up anymore and ended up laying on the ground. Moseley followed her trace of blood, stabbed her multiple more times, raped her, and left her for death. Many more heard her screams but yet they did nothing to help her. A woman several hours later found Genovese and called the cops, but she was already dead. Thus the creation of the bystander effect. If one of the multiple amount of people who heard her screams had helped her, even just by dialing 911, Genovese could have been saved. This case is a good example as to why we should revolt against the bystander effect and help people in need because the smallest thing can save someone's