Bystander effect

One of the case studies that really interested me this semester was the Bad Samaritan with David Cash and Jeremy Strohmeyer. In this case David Cash walked into the bathroom and saw his friend Jeremy "playing" with a young girl. Jeremy was actual going to rape and kill this young girl named Sherrice Iverson. Even though Jeremy was caught and put in prison many were angry with David Cash for not doing anything when he walked in on Strohmeyer and Sherrice. Cash claimed that when he went to the bathroom he could not tell that Jeremy would kill 7 year old Iverson, and because he did not foresee anything bad happening he did not do anything to stop it. However most people did not believe his statement. Many people labeled David Cash as a bystander because they thought he could have done something to save Sherrice's life but instead he just stood by and watched the events happen. 

I think that the bystander effect is very interesting because most people will get upset when a bystander does nothing to stop a crime from happening, but in reality most people are not going to put themselves in a dangerous or sticky situation to help someone they don't know. I think the bystander effect goes back to one of the ideas we talked about at the beginning of the year. If there is a train heading for a group of people and you could save them by pushing a man off a bridge to derail the train what do you do. Many of us said that we would like to think that we would save the group of people by pushing the man off the bridge, however we also realized that no one wanted to become personally involved by making the decision. This is what the bystander effect comes down to in my opinion. Most people would like to think they would do the right thing and help a person in need, but in reality most people don't want to become personally involved and will choose to do nothing instead.