Bystander Responses to Public Episodes of Child Abuse

Abstract

Bystander responses to public episodes of child abuse were surveyed among 269 self reported witnesses. Respondents completed an 80‐item self‐report questionnaire which inquired into a broad range of events, experiences, and behaviors surrounding naturally occurring incidents of perceived child abuse witnessed in public places. Almost one‐half of the sample reported having witnessed at least one event of child abuse in public, but only one out of four witnesses acted to intervene. Data analyses identified 40 statistically significant variables across four categories: characteristics of the bystander, situation, victim, and perpetrator. Results were generally consistent with predictions and findings from previous research on bystander intervention, but a number of new and significant variables were identified that characterized intervention events. Direct and indirect forms of intervention were also distinguished. Implications of the findings are discussed, and educating people to intervene on behalf of abused children is proposed.

Public Responses to Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: The Influence of Perceived Severity and Personal Responsibility

“…First, the inclusion of other relevant correlates of public responses to cases of IPVAW would help to further understand the processes involved in decision making leading to different types of responses to incidents of IPVAW. The inclusion of other possible predictors of public responses to IPVAW such as the influence of emotional factors, attitudes towards family privacy, victim-blaming attitudes, trust in the authorities' effectiveness, perception of the support available to victims, or contextual effects such as neighborhood social disorder would also help to better understand public responses to incidents of IPVAW (Christy & Voigt, 1994;Gracia & Herrero, 2007;Gracia, Herrero, Lila, & Fuente, 2009;Hadeed & El-Bassel, 2006;James, Johnson, & Raghavan, 2004;Levine, 1999;Raghavan, Mennerich, Sexton, & James, 2006;Weiner, 1980). Another potential limitation is that we used hypothetical scenarios as a stimulus rather than actual situations, and it is possible that public responses might differ from what they actually would do in a real situation (Fritzsche, Finkelstein, & Penner, 2000;Robinson & Chandek, 2000).…”

The Scarecrow and the Tin Man: The Vicissitudes of Human Sympathy and Caring

“…Batson et al (1996) found that the expectation of oneself receiving a shock affected self-reported empathy when observing a same-sex peer receive a shock, although this pattern was only observed in females. Christy and Voigt (1994) found that those who reported being abused as a child indicated that they would be more likely to intervene if they saw a child being abused than those who had never been abused.…”

Friends of Victims: Personal Experience and Prosocial Behavior

“…Batson et al (1996) found that for females but not males, the expectation of oneself receiving a shock affected self-reported empathy when one observed a same-sex peer receiving a shock. Christy and Voigt (1994) found that those who reported being abused as a child indicated that they would be more likely than those who had never been abused to intervene if they saw a child being abused. These studies focus on self-reported feelings and intentions rather than examining prosocial behavior per se.…”