Catherine Genovese Research Papers

It was a dark, cold morning and a sudden urgent scream broke the empty silence of the calm spring air. The screams of a young woman awakened many people within hearing distance, but though the yell for help was vital, no help was to arrive. The woman was stabbed multiples times and at age 28, died with no help from the many bystanders who had heard the attack. 1
Catherine Genovese was murdered on March 13, 1964. Genovese worked as a manager at a bar five miles away from her apartment complex. Having this kind of job meant that Genovese had to work late nights into the early mornings, something she hated but had to do. On the morning of her murder, Genovese left the bar at 3:15 am and drove her car the five miles to her apartment. As she arrived at the parking lot, she got out of the car and saw someone walking towards her at a very fast pace. When she realized that the man was coming after her,

Sims was a 91-year-old man who stopped at a gas station to simply fill up his gas tank. As Sims got out of his 2005 Chevy Malibu, a man came up and asked him for a light for his cigarette. Soon after that the man started to beat him, punching him in the side of his head multiple times. Sims was being carjacked in front if this convenience store, where there were reported bystanders with fee from the incident. Just like with the Genovese case, nobody reported what was happening to Sims until after the carjacker was getting away with the crime. Although it was gruesome and actually could have killed him, Sims survived the beating. Now how is it that, in both Sims and Genovese’s cases, there was no help provided? Although people were present and watched what was happening, nobody stepped in to help, or better yet, even bother to call the police. How could anyone let something as this happen?