I thought people can be divided into two types: perpetrators and victims. Whenever I come across a news about bullying, corruption, sexual harassment, fraud, or murder, there are always about perpetrators and victims.
From those news, we can learn how to not to be victims. We learn how to defend ourselves, we critically choose the right functionary who are not potentially involved in wrong way like corruption, and understand how criminality works so we can prevent it.
All of these lead us to the conclusion that people are divided into two types: perpetrator and victim. However, there is something i’d missing, the bystander.
Bystander Effect
The bystander effect is a phenomenon where people are less likely to help someone in need when there are other people around. In simpler terms, it means that people are more likely to do nothing or assume someone else will help when they see others present in a situation where help is needed.
In 1964, The New York Times released a news about the murder of Kitty Genovese. For more than half an hour, 38 citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab Miss Genovese in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens. Nobody called the police, moreover the first person who call a police explained that he had called the police after much celiberation. He didn’t want to get involved.
some media tells this case was exaggerated or even wrong, idk but this case was shown us that your decision can save someone else
From this case, I learned that the bystander type of people are the worst. You can’t choose to be a victim, but you can choose not to be a bystander. So next when you see people in trouble, decide for yourself to be the one who just stand by and watch or the one who makes a move.