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In 1964, the
gruesome sexual assault and murder of 28-year old
Kitty Genovese was
committed right outside her apartment building in a
suburb of NYC. What made this crime even more horrific
was that the attack lasted over a half hour (with the
assailant coming back three times to stab the victim)
AND that it was witnessed by 37 of her neighbors who
shut their eyes and ears and did nothing to
intervene—not even calling the police. The slaying of
Kitty Genovese has become a metaphor for what is known
as the Bystander Effect—the tendency of observers of a
crime to remain uninvolved. This week, Crime Prevention
Specialist Susan Bartelstone talks with Professor Robert
Eckstein, from the University of New Hampshire, who
teaches college students how, as bystanders, they can
safely engage in sexual violence prevention on college
campuses, and with Hunter College student Jerin Alam,
who’s trying to bring this curriculum to all the schools
in the City University system of New York. |
