can we blame the watchers?
On the other side of the 'whos to blame' argument are the spectators of the event. According to a CBS article on the 30th, the California Child Protection Act may not apply to the people who stood by and watched a 15-year-old get raped, but they are not completely blameless. Some think that those who stood by watching, pointing, laughing, or recording and taking pictures should definitely be charged with aiding and abetting, though whether that has any relevance to the case at hand against the 15 to 21-year-olds charged to rape is not clear. The article also discusses "Genevese syndrome", or "bystander effect", when people stand by not moving for help and watching a crime occur. Of course, having this name, this event has been observed in more than a few cases, and the coining of this term by law enforcement indicates the extent to which it occurs. If it is so blatantly obvious that some kind of emergency is occurring, why did no one do anything about it? Rather than watching a girl get raped for more than 2 hours, why could no one call the police to stop it?
Instead of blaming the school, the community, the victim or her attackers, why can't we blame the people who actually, in the moment, let this happen?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of the Richmond High School rape, I agree with Swathi that a lot of the blame should be put upon the bystanders who witnessed the rape, but did nothing to stop it. It is sad that since the victim was 15 years old-but it is only a crime in California to fail to report a crime against children 14 years old or younger-the bystanders may receive no punishment for letting this cruelty happen.
ReplyDeleteHowever, while I agree that the bystanders should be held partially accountable for the crime, I believe the attackers are the main people to blame. It's frustrating to see how the media turns the blame onto the bad neighborhood, the schools, and the parents of the attackers. In the article above, when describing the attackers, Margarita Vargas exclaimed, "They think it's cool...They weren't raised to respect girls." Here, it is suggested that the attackers didn't know any better because they weren't taught by their community, the school, and their parents to respect girls. However, although the community, the school, and the parents may have influenced the attackers choices, how can people put the blame on anyone else but the attackers and the bystanders? Regardless of where you're from, doesn't everyone have some concept of right and wrong?
I also agree with Swathi that bystanders deserve some partial blame for the Richmond High School rape. Certainly the perpetrators should be addressed with the main blame, but I think the bystanders did play some role in promoting the public gang rape by not seeking help. In addition to the atrocious gang rape, it is downright disgusting and appalling that these 20+ people stood there simply enjoying and watching the cruel crime event for over two hours. If any one of the big crowd of bystanders was to report to the authorities once he was aware of crime, the severity of the crime would have definitely been mitigated and the victim’s physical and emotional wounds have been assuaged. Also, the duration of the crime would have been curtailed. Many of the articles for Richmond H.S. rape referred to the rape that occurred at the De Anza College baseball team party back in 2007; again, the bystanders who were present in the same room where the rape took place did not intervene, and they simply cheered as they watched. It took three members of the college women’s soccer team to mediate and rescue the intoxicated 17 years old girl. It was interesting how the girls in both rape cases were the ones who sought help to rescue the victims. Do the bystanders not have any sisters or mothers? How would they feel if the victim was their younger sister or their mother? It’s saddening to see that so many people can be very cruel and apathetic when it comes to other’s danger sometimes.
ReplyDelete