Anomie: Catherine Genovese and the Lack of Societal Responsibilities
Morgan R. Danke
Pima Community College
Author Note
This Paper was prepared for Criminology, AJS 225, taught by Professor Morris.
Abstract
In 1964 Catherine ‘Kitty’ Genovese was murdered and raped outside of her New York apartment in the early morning hours of 3 a.m. Her case was one that shocked all of America to its very core. The killer and the witnesses to the crime show the start of disassociation within society in the three theories that are applied throughout the following pages: Rational Choice, Anomie and Routine Activity. The development of the bystander effect and the diffusion of responsibility and its significant harms to both society and its moral compass in
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Upon his arrest he had confessed to 5 burglaries and several violent sexual assaults, including the two unsolved murders and sexual assaults of Barbara Krlik, 15 and Annie Mae Johnson, 24. He had also admitted to have attempted sexual assaults on more than 4 women, all of which failed because he preferred to be a necrophilia stating that “He got no thrill with the living women he raped” (Gado, 2004).
He had explained to police that women were the natural choice because he had the need to feel dominant. He had stated that he found crime easy to commit because it was what he had done before and Catherine was a crime of opportunity, she had no one to protect her, she was alone and he wanted to commit a crime. He stated that Catherine’s murder and assault was “just an idea that came into my mind, I couldn’t put it aside, it was the perfect opportunity.’ He had weighed his benefits and left with a purpose to kill someone and that night he had wanted it to be a woman, he had told police that “I knew as soon as I saw people turn away from her, I could commit a crime and chances were, I could get away with it” (Schmalleger, 2014, pg.
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It was stated that whether or not people help depends on a series of interconnected events and decisions. They must first notice what’s happening, understand that it is an emergency and accept personal responsibility. When this fails to happen that is called the bystander effect (Carpenter & Huffman, 2008, p. 422). It has been reported that one of the main reasons for the non-reaction to Catherine’s murder is because no one realized that they are witnessing a real killing and the major shock involved in doing so versus what they saw in television caused their minds to refuse acceptance and this was supported when New York psychiatrist, Dr. Iago Galdston stated that “The megalopolis that we live in makes closeness very difficult and leads to alienation” he finished his statement by saying “The Killing of Kitty Genovese was symbolic to all that was wrong in modern society, apathy is endemic and it is dangerous” (Gado,
The bystander effect refers to the tendency for an observer of an emergency to withhold aid if the:
- He is a predatory stalker who pursued his desires for sexual gratification by following and watching his victims, before he closed in on them and assaulted them indecently.
As I was completing this assignment, I was watching the infamous Netflix documentary entitled Making a Murderer. The documentary follows the story of Steven Avery, who is currently in prison for the death of a woman, Teresa Halbach, in 2005. Steven Avery has been denying any involvement in the murder of Teresa Halbach for the past eleven years. In the middle of the reading, the documentary was exploring and analyzing Steven Avery’s deviant behavior as a young man (Making). As I observed what was being discussed about Steven Avery, I was able to build the connection between how society, and the community from which he came from, perceived Steven Avery and what Kai Erikson discussed in the first couple pages of the book with regards to deviance and its relation with regards to society.
The bystander effect is a the phenomenon in which the more people are are around the less likely someone will step-in or help in a given situation. THe most prominent example of this is the tragic death of Kitty Genovese. In march of 1964 Kitty genovese was murdered in the alley outside of her apartment. That night numerous people reported hearing the desperate cries for help made by Kitty Genovese who was stabbed to death. Her screams ripped through the night and yet people walked idly by her murder. No one intervened and not even a measly phone call to the police was made.
John Wayne Gacy was first brought up on charges of “deviate sex acts” in 1968 (Stevens, p.237, 2004). Gacy served eighteen months for this offense and was soon free to begin his killing spree. After his release from prison, Gacy began luring boys and young men to his home then killing and sexually assaulting them. A few the boys were employees of Gacy at his construction business and others were boys he lured with the promise of employment. Gacy would trick the boys claiming he was showing them a magic trick, since he often worked as Pogo the clown, and would handcuff them in his basement before killing and assaulting them. The police began surveilling Gacy, who acted as if their surveillance was a joke (Stevens, 2004). One officer, after accepting an invitation to Gacy’s home for dinner, smelled the “telltale odor of decomposition and rotting flesh while in the bathroom when the furnace fan turned on” (Stevens, p. 240, 2004). The officers investigated the smell by examining the crawl
Through newspapers articles we can take a glimpse at recorded history from the 18th century and see that rape had been a crime committed by many criminals, and dealt with harshly. Most victims of rape assaults were young women that were “robbed of that which constitutes the fairest part of the female sex- her chastity and peace of mind” (Newgate Calendar, Paragraph 3). John Lennard created a reputation for himself, as a man that was found guilty of raping a young woman by the name of Miss Ann Boss on the 15th of June, 1773. Not long after committing the crime, Lennard’s name appeared in numerous newspapers that were reporting on his accused crime. The newspapers followed him through his trial until after his execution on August 11, 1773. The newspapers used specific words and phrases that made Lennard appear to the public as either a dangerous criminal who has committed a particularly dangerous crime, or one that was grouped with other criminals who may have committed less dangerous or harmful crimes. These newspapers also had a way of appealing to the reader’s emotions in an attempt to teach the reader a valuable lesson from Lennard’s life of crime and execution. Through the newspapers specific word choices and appealing to our emotions and idea’s around life lesson’s, we can analyse how John Lennard is characterized by the public and depicted in the press.
Within the case study, it was about a young man that chose to take drugs over the love of his family. Junior was given an ultimatum by his wife; he could either be a full time father without the use of drugs, or he could be a part time father and continue to feed his addiction even more. In order to feed his addiction, Junior would steal things and cash them in to get the money for his drugs. Finally, one day Junior was caught coming out of one of the stores with merchandise that he did not pay for. As a repercussion, he was faced with jail time or an alternative to go to counseling for his drug problem. He chose to go to the rehabilitation center, but didn’t last a short three weeks there. I believe that this perspective of the movie closely correlates to the Anomie/Strain theory.
He killed women in several different states. The number of victims he had is still unknown to day but some believe it ranges from 30 to 100 women. Also, no one knows exactly why he began his killing. Psychologists have a few leads and theories of what may have set him off. They believe maybe it was because of the way he was raised and the environment he grew up in. Another, reason he could have become such a prominent murderer in the US is because of his broken relationship he had with a girl in college. The most possible motive he had may have been his obsession for
Rutkowski and colleagues (1983) showed that group size only decreased helping where bystanders were unacquainted, but facilitated helping where there was high cohesion and acquainted individuals. This can be explained as groups being more likely to conform to the social responsibility norm of helping when there is high group cohesion (Rutkowski et al., 1983). Additional evidence provided by Levine and Crowther (2008) showed that group size encouraged intervention in emergency situations when bystanders were acquaintances. Moreover, Levine and Crowther (2008) found that where bystanders and victims share a salient social category membership, group size could increase helping (Levine & Crowther, 2008; Swann et al., 2015). Drawing on the self-categorisation theory, the results support that individuals are more able to empathise when their identity is attached and fused to their group membership. Consequently, salient group-based identity would increase a bystander’s likelihood of intervening. These studies show that Latane and Darley’s finding that groups reduce helping behaviour is not conclusive. Instead, there are implications that the effects of groups depend on situational factors and the importance of the group to
This paper is talking about “The Serial Killer,” but focus on Gary Ridgway- “The Green River Serial Killer.” He earned his nickname because the first five victims that he killed were found in the Green River. He was one of the most famous serial killers in the United States. Ridgway raped, chocked, killer and discarded 48 women, including many teenagers as young as 15 years old (Silja J, 2003). In Ridgway’s mind, he even believed that he was helping the police out, as he admitted in one interview with investigators (Silja J, 2003).
The world is quickly becoming a more dangerous place everyday. Approximately 25,961 crimes happen every day in the U.S, many of which are witnessed by individuals at the scene of the crime. However, the sad reality is that those people are more concerned with recording the event on their phone than actually helping the one in need. A number of studies have been performed, and it has been discovered that there is a physiological phenomenon known as the bystander effect(Levine,”Rethinking”). The bystander effect occurs when someone is in need, there are others to witness their need, but they do nothing(Levine,”Rethinking”). Through experimentation it has been determined that the dependent variable in whether the witness will intervene or not
The essay Paralyzed Witnesses: The Murder They Heard was written by Stanley Milgram and Paul Hollander. In this essay, the authors describe in detail the responses of the witnesses during the murder of Kitty Genovese and the impact this case has of the ability for an individual to help people during a time of distress. The main idea of this essay was to analyze the reasons why the witnesses did not help during the murder. The internal and external conflicts were the main factors that influenced the witnesses did not help Genovese during her time of need.
However, that opposing argument can be found as hypocritical. If a person was getting robbed in an ally and they saw many witnesses taking no action they would likely be upset by the fact of no one is offering any assistance to them. Bystanders should put themselves into the shoes of the person in need and ask themselves how they would expect others to respond if they were the one in need. Often time’s bystanders take no intervention because of the diffusion of responsibility. “When there are four or more people who are bystanders to an emergency situation, the likelihood that at least one of them will help is just 31%” (Gaille). Another statistic shows that 85% of people who were bystanders would intervene if they knew or at least though they were the only person present in the situation. Often the only thing keeping people from intervening in bystander situations are other people. It is important for bystanders to understand the statistics of the people around them in order to create action because often times they do not realize that if they were to intervene other people would likely support them in the situation. Bystanders need to make it a personal responsibility to intervene in situations for the good of other. If people were to always take action the amount of bullying, sexual harassment, crime, and many other significant issues within a society would drastically
Fischer, P., Krueger, J., Greitemeyer, T., Kastenmüller, A., Vogrincic, C., Frey, D., Heene, M., Wicher, M., & Kainbacher, M. (2011). The bystander-effect: A meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 517-537.
Darley, J. M. & Latané, B. (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 8, 377–383