The Bystander Effect.

my heart is aching with anger and sadness when i read the metro newspaper on the the 27th of february. it was about a 3 years old baby girl who was abused by her mother`s lover till death. what a wicked, devilish, and hellish man that man is to beat mercilessly a baby. unbelievable. just unbelievably cruel.

but wait, that`s not all, what really makes this matter shocking and devastating is that the abuse TOOK PLACE IN A FIELD WHERE 10 TO 20 PEOPLE BEAR WITNESS TO THE INCIDENT! the question that linger in my head was that, what are the bystanders doing when the 10-minutes abuse happen??!!! FOR TEN MINUTES YOU WATCH THE THREE-YEARS OLD BABY BEING KICKED AND HER HEAD STEPPED ON REPEATEDLY AND YET, YOU DO NOTHING??!!! the citizens there also claim that they are being threatened not to interfere in his family business by the perpetrator. what?? just because of that you don`t want to help?? aren`t you planty in number?? can`t you fight him?? i really don`t understand this. how can they just watch a baby being beaten to death? where`s your sense of justice, compassion and sympathy?? just imagine that you`re in a position where you are beaten and nobody helps. how would you feel? and this is a three years old we're talking about. shame on you!

when i read about this incident, i remembered about a condition called 'the bystander effect'. here`s the explanation:

"The bystander effect is the somewhat controversial name given to a social psychological phenomenon in cases where individuals do not offer help in an emergency situation when other people are present. The probability of help has in the past been thought to be inversely proportional to the number of bystanders. In other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help."

some of the examples of the bystander effects:


Kitty Genovese

"The most infamous example of the bystander effect took place on March 13, 1964, in Kew Gardens, Queens, NY, when Catherine Genovese was entering her apartment building at about 3:15 AM, from work. She was stabbed twice in the back by Winston Moseley, a heavy machine operator, who later explained that he simply “wanted to kill a woman.”

Genovese screamed, “Oh, my God! He stabbed me! Help me!” and collapsed. Several neighbors in surrounding buildings reported hearing her voice, but decided it was probably just a drunken brawl or lovers’ spat. One man shouted from his window, “Let that girl alone!” which scared Moseley away.

This neighbor was sure to have seen Genovese crawling across the street, under a streetlight, to her apartment, but did nothing to help her. Witnesses saw Moseley drive away, then return about 10 minutes later. He had put on a wider-rimmed hate to hide his face, and searched for Genovese in the parking lot, the train station, and the apartment complex, for 10 minutes, before finding her prone in the external hallway at the rear of the building, where the door was locked. She could not get in.

Moseley proceeded to stab her to death, inflicting multiple wounds in her hands and forearms, indicating that she tried to fight him off. She finally succumbed and he raped her as she lay dying. He then stole around $50 from her and fled. The whole incident spanned 30 minutes.

A newspaper blasted it the next day as “Thirty-eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call Police,” but this is inaccurate. There were approximately 12 people who claimed to have seen the first attack. Many of them later stated that they “just didn’t want to get involved.” A simple phone call to the police would have sufficed, but everyone assumed someone else would do it."


The Richmond High School Incident

The girl’s name has not been released to date, as she is 15 years old, but the accounts of the crime all agree, and it is beyond belief. For 2 and a half hours, while the High School Homecoming Dance was taking place inside the gymnasium, approximately 10 men gang-raped the 15-year-old student, beating her savagely the whole time, all the while 10 others stood around laughing and taking pictures with their cell phones.

The crowd eventually numbered more than 20, and no one called the police. No one went inside to tell a security guard or a policeman, several of which were on campus at the time. A little earlier, the assistant principal looked out his office window and saw 12 to 15 grown men sitting around near the scene of the crime, none of whom had identification badges, as is required, and none of whom appeared to be a teenager, and the assistant principal did not call the police, or alert any teachers or students. He returned to his job and ignored them.

The girl is still in critical condition at a hospital, having been found later by someone leaving the dance.(October 27, 2009)"


horrible isn`t? what have become to our society?

p/s: al fatihah to syafia humaira. i just hate child abuse- to beat weak defenseless child is just disgusting and very2 low!



p/s/s: why am i so angry to those who fail to protect shafia humaira? maybe, i`m afraid that when such situation happen to me, i would be just like them- unable to help. i hope not.oh Allah, give me strength...