Word, Deletha

Weekend revelers in Detroit had a chance to stop a crime and save a life. Instead, they apparently gawked. And Deletha Word, 33, working mother, is dead. 

Would you assume personal responsibility and respond Surely the bystanders in the Kitty Genovese and Deletha Word incidents described earlier noticed the event and interpreted it as requiring assistance. Steps 1 and 2 of Latan6 and Darley s decision model were likely satisfied. The breakdown probably occurred at Step 3—perceiving personal responsibility. 

In this stage you ask yourself, "Is it my responsibility to intervene " The answer would be obvious if you were the only witness to a situation you perceive as an emergency. However, you might not answer "yes" to tiris question when you know that other people are also observing the emergency or the safety hazard. In this case, you have reason to believe someone else will intervene, perhaps a person more capable than you. This perception relieves you of personal responsibility, but what happens when everyone believes the other guy will take care of it This is likely what happened in the Kitty Genovese and Deletha Word incidents and many other tragedies just like these. 

Several years ago, a heart-warming story appeared in our local newspaper. The Roanoke Times and World Report. The newspaper report of the incident is reprinted in Figure 15.1 and it is clearly opposite to the Kitty Genovese and Deletha Word tragedies reviewed in Chapter 14. In tois case, two individuals, Tywanii Hairston and John McKee, went out of their way to save the life of a truck driver named Don Arthur, whose truck was blocking traffic because he had blacked out. Several individuals had already driven around his truck without intervening—for a variety of possible reasons discussed in Chapter 14, but two individuals did interrupt their routine to actively care, and the result was a life saved. 

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