Time to mention The Liverpool 38 again Ammi,38 people who ignored James Bulger even when he was clearly distressed,38 people who spoke to them and still did not intervene,just ONE nosey sod could have saved his life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger

newspapers denounced the people who had seen Bulger but had not intervened to aid Bulger as he was being taken through the city, as the "Liverpool 38".

I'm still stunned at that, nobody could have predicted what happened but still, 3 kids under 11 just roaming about? And they were seen hitting him ... how could they :(

:joker:

I can imagine you directing them "I want tears! Bloody cry! Your mum's gone, she could be dead, look sad!"

That's the first thing that came to my mind too.

..yeah, that was something that I didn't know Kaz and is extremely shocking and sad but it kind of shows that even though people may have known this was a 'set up', there is still a reluctance to approach children and offer help, maybe for fear of repercussions/perceptions, which really is quite disturbing...

I think this story is etched on the psyche of the public but I think it has had the opposite effect. Most people now are acutely aware of getting involved with small children who appear to be on their own. They remember the Bulger case but also know how perceptions to Paedophiles have also changed.

I feel it is one of sad ironies of the Bulger case that members of the public especially men are now LESS likely to put themselves into positions where they may be incorrectly labeled as suspected child molesters or worse.

Made me feel sick reading that again Kazanne. I understand what you are saying about the 38 people seeing them and not intervening but the age of the boys must have been a factor in this. I always recall before James being found and seeing the grainy footage on the news of him being led away and my reaction was reassurance that he was with young boys, it never occurred to me that that he was in any danger with them, and even for the two people who did intervene Thomson and Venables had plausible stories though saying they were taking him to the Police Station I guess as an adult that person should have intervened and taken James themselves, I'm sure they suffered terribly for that decision.

I thought this was going What would you do, they did something like this else well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYPS7vEhT44

As a gay 30 y/o man, i try to not even make eye contact with children. The "gays are pedophiles" stereotype is something I am always aware of.

It's a fairly well defined psychological concept:

Bystander apathy

It's quite an interesting phenomenon really. Humans are social creatures and in stressful or unusual situations we regress quite quickly to instinctually taking social cues from those around us. For those who don't feel like a read, the basics are:

The more people that are around an incident, the LESS likely it is that someone will intervene. For reasons such as, if no one else is doing anything, people are more inclined to follow that example and do the same. Also, diminished responsibility - people think "there's loads of other people around, someone else will do something". Of course the problem is, everyone is thinking the same thing.

interestingly - often all it takes is for ONE person to step in, and then several people will also step up to help. It's like it short-circuits the effect and people suddenly realise "Oh... Someone is stepping in to help. Should I be helping? I probably should!"

It has a lot to do with social inhibitions etc. too. for example, a group walking home from work seeing someone being mugged by two guys is mote likely to walk on past. A group of tipsy revellers with a couple of drinks in them would often stop to help / chase off the attackers.

Yeah, sounds about right TS ^

That could explain my reaction the other day to the homophobic bullying on the bus...
I wasn't consciously waiting for someone else to step in but was so relieved when they did.
I thought it was because they were boys, the bully could've got aggressive with me and the bullied lad could've gotten humiliated/embarrassed I'd intervened.

Less bystander apathy, more fear & self preservation.

Yes,you'de never think kids so young could be so cruel,and vile,but there you go,and yes the crafty little gits had stories at the ready,people weren't to know,but he was crying at one point I think I would have followed them tbh,I just don't think I'de have settled with walking away,but we are all different I guess.

I think as well because children are generally very innocent, you really wouldn't expect them to make up a lie that they knew him or were looking after him or whatever, you'd just sort of accept it at face value... even if it was an adult I'm not sure I would intervene, which is sad but I guess it's a consequence of the times we live in, the media has glorified paedophilia, abduction and murder stories and people don't want to be tarred with the brush of being a suspect in any way by getting involved in situations like this. It basically allows psychopaths to do whatever they want and as long as they're convincing enough, nobody will stop them from carrying out their crime.

No it wasn't fear, I was really angry but didn't want to go wading in, the lad initially handled it very well but then the bully really started piling the pressure on and he looked totally humiliated. The worry was I would add to that by making it more of an issue.

Yes I agree it is difficult to try and second guess the best way to deal with situations like these. Once involved you have to be ready to deal with a host of unpredictable outcomes.

At least you were there in case things had of gotten really out of hand.

This big bloke just spun round and went 'oi fookin leave him!' He scuttled upstairs so fast
:joker: