Response to the Richmond High Rape

I have been following the Richmond High School rape case in the papers for the past few weeks, and I agree with Swathi in that it is astonishing that no blame has been placed on the bystanders. While clearly they shouldn't shoulder all the blame, it is absurd to let them completely off the hook. While this authorities are passing this off as a case of the "bystander effect", I don't believe that should be a legitimate excuse for not helping the girl. Many people are blaming the community for not being safe enough and for allowing these things to happen, but as high school students these bystanders had to know the difference between right and wrong, and rape is very clearly a wrong. Even though the California Child Protection Act only covers children up to the age of 14, these bystanders should not go unpunished. Almost everyone that the media has interviewed at the school has said that they would have stepped up and done something if they had witnessed this horrible crime, and yet in the crowd that gathered there wasn't one person that said anything for over two hours. Is this then a problem with our morality? I think everyone would like to believe that they would stop this attack if they came upon it, and that anyone who wouldn't has something seriously wrong with them. But all of these bystanders can't be horrible people, can they? I understand that peer pressure played a role in their silence, but there must be a point where peer pressure becomes irrelevant. I hope that these bystanders are punished in some way so that what they did does not become an acceptable act.