On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:43:02 -0700, Michael Britt wrote: >In an episode for my podcast I reviewed the article that appeared >in American Psychologist which tried to set some of the facts straight >regarding what really happened to Kitty Genovese. Here's the link >(there are also links here to where you can find additional factual >information about this case): http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/11/25/episode-36-the-myth-of-the-kitty-genovese-story/
Can I make the plea that: (1) Read Harold Takooshian's review in PsycCritiques "The 1964 Kitty Genovese Tragedy: Still a Valuable Parable" (March 11, 2009, Vol. 54, Release 10, Article 2). I quote his final comments: |Timeliness | |The appearance of these two volumes in 2008 is made especially |timely by a recent article in the American Psychologist aiming to debunk |"the parable of the 38 witnesses" (Manning, Levine, & Collins, 2007). |This article pointed to some exaggerations of the Genovese tragedy and |then, incredibly, concluded, "The story of the 38 witnesses is not supported |by the available evidence" (p. 555) and should be removed from textbooks. |Much like "Holocaust denials," this bold article seems deeply flawed on |several levels. | |First, from the outset, its title mistakenly used the term parable to connote |a falsehood or myth rather than a valuable moral truth. Second, whether it |was 38 or another number, three facts remain undeniable-there were |many witnesses, they heard or saw their neighbor scream for her life, and |she saw them do nothing to save her. Third, the three British authors based |much of their analysis on one Internet site, www.kewgardenshistory.com. |This nonrefereed source is maintained by a genial amateur historian who |loves his neighborhood, views the Genovese incident as an unfair blight on |it, and uses the site to minimize this incident by pointing out inconsistencies |in the many accounts of it (DeMay, n.d.). Sadly, the site has now come to |maintain that the Genovese tragedy never occurred in Kew Gardens as |reported, not mentioning the more accurate point that such a tragedy can |and does occur in many neighborhoods. Fourth, this article did nothing to |rebut 40 years of behavior research evidence verifying the obvious reality |of the Genovese syndrome (Dowd, 1984). The result seems a wrongheaded |attempt to try to ignore the Genovese parable today in much the way that |the original witnesses ignored her original cries in 1964. | |In 1964, when the veteran chief of detectives Albert Seedman asked |Genovese's killer whether he was afraid of the many witnesses watching |him, Seedman was chilled by the killer's cold reply: "Oh, I knew they |wouldn't do anything. People never do" (Seedman & Hellman, 1974, p. 129). |Surely one key reason why people worldwide remain so moved by the |Genovese tragedy is the haunting image of this young woman's terror as |she watched others ignore her desperate screams. Yes, Genovese may |have seen her screams ignored that night, but, thanks to Abe Rosenthal |and now Charles Skoller, these screams have reverberated around the |world for four decades, and our society is now the better because of its |many responses to them. Yes Kitty, we hear you now, and we are not |the same because of this. (2) Charles Skoller, the author of "Twisted Confessions", was the Queens (NY) assistant district attorney who tried Kitty Genovese's killer and built the case from crime scene investigation, interviews with witnesses, and so on immediately after the crime was committed. He is one of the few people who was intimately involved in many details of the case is probably our best source of information on what happened. Skoller also appears in Gibney's documentary "Human Behavior Experiments", walking the streets in Queens around Genovese's home and pointing how some people reacted. Again, his book is available at books.google.com, see: http://books.google.com/books?id=BFG9auOHD2cC&dq=skoller+%22twisted+confessions%22&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=EWII9R5RQD&sig=BMp4PnwJKsKbA7OSpibEMYzgLto&hl=en&ei=Dv-8SagamZGZB4GUuZsO&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPP1,M1 or http://tinyurl.com/av6n4x I think one should read his book before claiming to know what happened in the Genovese case. Perhaps someone might consider doing a "podcast" about it. Some final comments below. On Mar 15, 2009, at 7:26 AM, Paul Okami wrote: >Mike Palij wrote: >>Again, I'm not sure I understand. What "did not occur in the >>Genovese's case"? > >38 people did not calmly witness Genovese's rape-murder, neither >calling the police nor intervening. This reminds of the story attributed to George Bernard Shaw who allegedly asked a lady at a dinner party if she would sleep with him for a million dollars.Supposedly she responsed "Glady!". Shaw then asked if she would sleep with him for a dollar to which the lady is alleged to say "Of course not! what do you think I am?!" To which Shaw replied: "We have established what you are, madam. We are now merely haggling over the price." http://www.bbcportal.com/quotes.html?view=mediawiki&article=George_Bernard_Shaw With respect to the number of witnesses who did nothing for Kitty Genovese, I suppose we're just "haggling over the price" here, eh? I recommend Skoller's book to you. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
