Huston 1981
Huston 1981
Huston 1981
Author(s): Ted L. Huston, Mary Ruggiero, Ross Conner and Gilbert Geis
Source: Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Mar., 1981), pp. 14-23
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3033858 .
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BystanderIntervention
intoCrime: A StudyBased on
Naturally-Occurring
Episodes
TED L. HUSTON
The PennsylvaniaState University
MARY RUGGIERO
ROSS CONNER
GILBERT GEIS
Universityof California,Irvine
Group Comparability
To intervenein a crime,an individual
mustfirstwitnesssuch an event. Some
To determinepossible idiosyncratic personssee a good deal morecrimethan
characteristicsof the crimeinterveners,others.Partof thisexperienceundoubt-
we comparedthemwithpersonsin our edly relatesto theirplaces of residence,
Los Angelesarea samplewho had indi- wheretheywork,and theirotherhabits.
catedthattheyhad intervened in a crime Crimeinterveners reported havingbeen
during thepasttenyears.Onlynineofthe exposed to considerablymore serious
155 personsfromthis samplesaid they crimeduringthe past ten yearsthanthe
had directlyintervened in a crime,and noninterveners(t(31) = 2.81, p < .01).
noneofthesewereinjuredintheprocess. Theyindicatedthattheyhadwitnessedan
The twogroupsofcrimeinterveners were averageof3.8 crimes(s.d. = 7.0), a figure
indistinguishable,except withregardto thatcontrastssharplywiththeaverageof
theirresponses to Zuckermanet al.'s .28 crimes(s.d. = .68) forour matched
(1964)sensation-seekingscaleandthreeof comparison group.The averagefigure for
the self-descriptiveadjectivetraits.The crimeinterveners was inflated, however,
intervenersin our study sample were by one respondent who said thathe had
lowerin sensation-seeking and less likely seen 37 crimes.Even omitting this re-
to describe themselvesas ambitious, spondent, thedifferencebetweenthetwo
idealistic,and principled.Of thefourdif- groupsis considerable (an averageof2.6,
ferences,onlyone bearsupona variable s.d. = 3.4, compared to .29, s.d. = .69),
that discriminatedbetween our study andstatistically (t(30)= 3.64,p
significant
groupand the noninterveners (as willbe < .01).
discussedbelow). The interveners in our Equallyinteresting
are theinterveners'
samplewereless likelyto see themselves reportsof past victimization and direct
as principledthanthe crimeintervenersintervention intocrimesotherthanthose
identified throughthe Los Angelessur- that triggered our interview.The inter-
vey. It appears,then,thatour selection venersreportedhavingthemselvesbeen
procedureenabledus to locatebona fide victimsofseriouscrimesmorethantwice
intervenersin crime; we can be rea- as oftenas thenoninterveners (M = 1.81,
sonablycertainthatthereareno"fakes"in s.d. = 1.73,vs.M=.81,s.d. = 1.06;t(31)=
our sample.We could not have been so 2.74,p < .01). Eleven of theinterveners
surehad we selecteda groupof individu- reported thattheyhaddirectly intervened
als solelyon thebasisoftheir(orsomeone inat leastonecrimeotherthantheonefor
else's) claimthattheyhad intervened in a whichtheyeventuallywerecompensated.
dangerouscriminalevent.
PersonalityCharacteristics
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The data showed,contrary to our ex-
Theresultsarepresented intermsofthe pectations,thatthe interveners and the
threeearlieridentified reasonsthatsome comparisongroupwerevirtually indistin-
guishablein termsof personalitycharac-
I Descriptivedata regardingthe situationalparam- teristics.None of the eightscales dif-
eters of the 32 interventions(e.g., the numberof ferentiatedthetwogroups,nordidanyof
bystanderspresent)will not be includedin the pres- the three subscales of Fischer's(1973)
ent paper. measureofhumanitarianism. Thet-values