No one helped
Subtitle: Kitty Genovese, New York City, and the myth of urban apathy
By: Marcia M. Gallo
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Ithaca; London
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 212
ISBN-13: 9780801456640; 9780801452789
Subjects: Homicide; Murder; Bystander effect; Psychology; Murder in mass media; History
Description: In No One Helped Marcia M. Gallo examines one of America's most infamous true-crime stories: the 1964 rape and murder of Catherine Kitty Genovese in a middle-class neighborhood of Queens, New York. Front-page reports in the New York Times incorrectly identified thirty-eight indifferent witnesses to the crime, fueling fears of apathy and urban decay. Genovese's life, including her lesbian relationship, also was obscured in media accounts of the crime. Fifty years later, the story of Kitty Genovese continues to circulate in popular culture. Although it is now widely known that there were far fewer actual witnesses to the crime than was reported in 1964, the moral of the story continues to be urban apathy. No One Helped traces the Genovese story's development and resilience while challenging the myth it created. No One Helped places the conscious creation and promotion of the Genovese story within a changing urban environment. Gallo reviews New York's shifting racial and economic demographics and explores post-World War II examinations of conscience regarding the horrors of Nazism. These were important factors in the uncritical acceptance of the story by most media, political leaders, and the public despite repeated protests from Genovese's Kew Gardens neighbors at their inaccurate portrayal. The crime led to advances in criminal justice and psychology, such as the development of the 911 emergency system and numerous studies of bystander behaviors. Gallo emphasizes that the response to the crime also led to increased community organizing as well as feminist campaigns against sexual violence. Even though the particulars of the sad story of her death were distorted, Kitty Genovese left an enduring legacy of positive changes to the urban environment.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Prologue: A New York story; title: Urban villages in the big city; title: Hidden in plain sight; title: Thirty-eight witnesses; title: The metropolitan brand of apathy; title: The city responds; title: Surviving new city streets; title: Challenging the story of urban apathy; title: Epilogue: Kitty, fifty years later.