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Denisse Silva
Dr. Deborah Kellner
ENGL 0099
Essay

Crisis Intervention and Peer Pressure

It is unbelievable how many accidents can be preventable and at

the same time many lives can be saved. Many People are asking for
help. However in these modern times people are busy to listen others
or just are so busy to expend their time helping others. The modern
world seems like people dont care about others anymore.

Deadly chatter by Horburgh Susan and Dodd Johnny describes

the way Brandon Vedas died from an overdose on drugs. Brandon
dropped out high school at 16 but he earned his G.E.D. He began using
a wide range of drugs, including ecstasy, LSD and speed. Brandon was
well known in chat rooms for drug devotes, he had been using the
drugs prescribed by his doctor to get high. He died in front of an
Internet chat room when he overdosed with a half dozen other chatters
watching him and nobody called the police or alerted Vedas mother.
This article demonstrates how a half dozen of people watched a human
kill his self and nobody called the police. Nobody felt the necessity to
help or even try to stop him.

Thirty Seven Who Saw Murder Dint Call Police, by Martin

Gansberg Narrate the story of 38 people who watched the way a killer
stalked and stabed a women in three separate attacks. Thirty-eight
neighbors watched and nobody called the police while the assailant
had three chances to kill this woman during 35 minutes. The assailant
returned twice to complete the job. Her name was Catherine
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Genovese, also knows as Kitty throughout her neighborhood, She

screamed for help, but nobody came out to help her.
This confirms that people dont do anything even knowing someone
needed help.

The Beauty of Intervention, by James V. Kulis, an article in the

newspaper talked about the Genovese murder to investigate deeper to
answer his question about why people often do not spring into action
or act effectively when help is needed. Kulis a call to action for SH&E
professionals. The professional called this the bystander effect and said
that the presence of other people decreases the probability that any
one individual will help, because the belief is that someone else will
surely rise to the occasion. Psychologist Latane and Darley, developed
a decision tree that describe five stages leading to intervention, such
as noticing, interpreting, taking responsibility, deciding how to help
and providing help.
This article in the news answers my question of why people do
not help by explaining about the bystander effect. Many people do not
react to an emergency because everyone believes that someone else
is going to do it.

I realize how important it is to have initiative for something that

seems out of the ordinary, to act on time can save lives. In the case of
Kitty, her life could have been saved if one of the neighbors took the
initiative to call the police, instead of open the window to see better
that she was raped and murdered. Also, the case of Vedas is really
disturbing that people watched how he was destroying his life and
nobody said anything, I know the experts call this the bystander effect,
but I am still thinking about it and I just cant believe it. However, Im
sure that if I was in that situation, I would not think twice to do
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anything to help; but honestly, I never have been in this situation and
Im afraid to think that I would act like these people did, doing nothing.

In conclusion, many accidents can be prevented, we just need to

be aware of whats happening around us and take the responsibility
with others or before others to help. We need to learn from all these
terrible cases to not repeat the same.

Works Cited

Gansberg, Martin. "37 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police." The New York Times.

The New York Times, 26 Mar. 1964. Web. 26 Mar. 2017.

Horsburgh, Susan and Johnny Dodd. "Deadly Chatter." People, vol. 59, no. 7, 24 Feb.

2003, p. 67. EBSCOhost search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9095888&site=ehost- live.

Kulis, James V. "The Beauty of Intervention." Professional Safety, vol. 49, no. 9, Sept.

2004, pp. 41-43. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=14317150&site=ehost-live.