Why People Don T Help In A Crisis Essay

It is funny how we teach our children that it is good to help someone in need of help, but we do not do it ourselves. Sure, there are some people who would not mind helping a stranger out in a situation where it does not require a lot of time and effort from them, but anything beyond that, we do not want any involvement in it. We simply choose to ignore it. In their essay, “Why People Don’t Help in a Crisis,” authors Darley and Latane, they gave us some examples of crisis where people did not want to help or intervene. They also indicate some of the many reasons why people refuse to help in a crisis situation. There are a multitude of reasons why people do not assist in a crisis, and some of those reasons are because they are wary, helpless, …show more content…
They want to help, but they cannot. Several years ago, I was in this type of conflict. One day my children and I went to the store. As I was pushing my children in a cart to the store doors, I heard a commotion coming from that direction. Once I got closer, I noticed it was a man manhandling a girl. She was in her mid-teens, from what I can tell, and she was hysterically crying. The man was slapping and screaming at her, and he did not care that he was in a public place. Furious about what was going on, I wanted to stop the man, but I realized I had my children with me. Although I wanted to help, I could not because it meant I would have to put my children in the middle of the confrontation. It felt like I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I did not know what to do in order to help her. When he noticed we saw what was going on, he pulled her towards the car to leave. Even if I called the police, I would not be much of help because I would not be to get a good look at the license plate. In order for me to get the plate’s numbers, I would have to get really close to see it, and it could put me and my children in danger of being hit when he reversed the vehicle. Without my glasses, I would not be able to see from a safe distance. All I could do was watch them drive away. I was helpless to help the child in her moment of …show more content…
A person seeing someone in distress and not do anything about it is disturbing to know. For instance, the situation I witnessed when I was going to store with my children. When we made it into the store, I was stunned to see that there was about a dozen of people in the place. I was even appalled and outraged to see that a handful of them were grown men. As I looked around, I noticed I am the only person with children. Even more shocking was the fact that I found out the man was mistreating the child in the store before he brought the situation outside. All those people watched her get abused, and they did not intervene to help her. They all felt bad for her, but they refuse to assist her. The only thing holding them back was themselves. These people chose to look the other way rather than help a child in