How the 1964 Kitty Genovese Murder Spotlighted the Bystander Effect

If you had been in the New York City borough of Queens in the early hours of March 13, 1964, you might have heard Kitty Genovese crying for help as she was raped and killed outside her apartment building in the Kew Gardens neighborhood. Though her death was brutal and shocking, it was the aftermath and how people around her responded, that turned her tragedy into one of the most influential cases in the field of social psychology.

At about 3:15 am, 28-year-old Genovese arrived home from a late shift managing a bar when Winston Moseley—a stranger who had been following her—attacked her with a hunting knife outside her building. Genovese screamed for help, and a neighbor shouted down, “Leave that girl alone!” from a window. As Moseley ran off, it seemed like she might be safe, but 10 minutes later, while Genovese was trying to reach the rear entrance to her building, Moseley returned. He stabbed her again in a hallway, then sexually assaulted her and stole $49 from her purse before leaving. Genovese died before making it to a hospital.

After the murder, Genovese’s partner, Mary Ann Zielonko, was intensively questioned by police regarding possible involvement in her girlfriend’s killing. This questioning lasted for approximately six hours and focused heavily on the couple’s romantic involvement. However, days later, Moseley was arrested in connection with a burglary. He confessed to Genovese’s killing, as well as two other women’s murders, and was sentenced to death. His sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment, and he died in prison in 2016 at age 81.

Shortly after Genovese’s murder, The New York Times published a now-infamous article stating that 38 witnesses had seen or heard the attack and failed to intervene (at the time, 911 did not exist, so people had to call individual police precincts for help). The story struck a nerve because of the idea that dozens of neighbors had heard the woman’s cries for help, with no one stepping forward to assist. However, the article was wrong.

“It was put on the front page as an example of urban apathy,” Kevin Cook, author of Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America, tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “The story fit that narrative, but it was not true at all.”

In reality, “dozens” of people heard or saw the attack, according to Cook, who notes that while “there were many more ear-witnesses than eyewitnesses,” there were “very few who actually knew what was going on.” Only two of those witnesses saw the attack and chose not to act, he says. Some people did, in fact, spring into action, calling police or even going down to help Genovese.

The angry public reaction to Genovese’s murder inspired social psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané to investigate why people sometimes fail to intervene during heightened social situations when others are present. This research led to the identification of the bystander effect.

Through experiments, Darley and Latané showed that people were far less likely to intervene in an emergency when they believed others were also observing it. Two psychological mechanisms helped explain this idea, the first being diffusion of responsibility, i.e., when multiple people are present, each individual feels less personal responsibility for taking action.

The second concept is social influence, defined as looking to others for cues on how to respond. If no one else appears concerned, someone may interpret a situation as less serious than it really is.

“The more people are around in a situation where someone needs help, the less likely [people are] to help. There's this diffusion of responsibility,” Jill Huntley Taylor, social psychologist and trial consultant, tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “[Researchers’] initial thought was, ‘Oh, people are apathetic, people don't care.’ But the research [showed] that people did care, but there was this conflict. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know if other people were going to act, and they were taking their cues from each other.”

As a result, “when there are bystanders around who are not taking action, people are less likely to take action,” Taylor continues.

The Genovese case became the textbook example of these principles.

In the years after Genovese’s death, journalists and historians re-examined the original reporting on her murder.

In addition to realizing that not all of the neighbors who heard or saw the attack were fully cognizant of what was happening when Genovese was stabbed. Some only heard bits of the incident and didn’t realize a violent assault was occurring. At least one aforementioned witness yelled at Moseley, causing him to temporarily run away. Others contacted the police.

Genovese’s neighbor and friend, Sophia Farrar, also rushed to the young woman’s side and stayed with her, as she lay dying, until help finally arrived. “While her husband was getting his pants on and everybody was trying to figure out what's going on, Sophia Farrar raced down the stairs and went to Kitty's side without having any idea that the assailant had left,” Cook says. “Sophia was tremendously brave and had Kitty in her arms until the ambulance came.”

Genovese’s murder indirectly helped prompt the launch of America’s ubiquitous 911 emergency call system. Before the late 1960s, one would have to call a police precinct directly in an emergency, or press “0” to speak with an operator and connect to the police that way.

In the years following Genovese’s death, public pressure grew for a single, universal emergency number. The President’s Commission on Law Enforcement recommended a nationwide number in 1967. In 1968, AT&T and the federal government designated 911 as the universal emergency number. The number was picked because it wasn’t used as an area code, and it was simple and easy to remember.

The first 911 call was placed in Alabama that year.

Even with the inaccuracies in the initial reports, Genovese’s murder left a lasting mark on society. It transformed how we study human behavior, leading to decades of research into responsibility, altruism and social influence. The case also played into public discussions about emergency response systems.

“Kitty has been known for 50 years as just a victim; a picture in the paper,” Cook says. “She should be remembered as a person, not just a victim and a picture.”