Violent Crime and the “Bystander Effect”

The Seinfeld characters ended up in jail for not intervening during a crime

In my two published novels, Compulsion and Dead Game, my protagonist is a woman who has made the decision to get involved when she knows a crime is being committed. Emily Stone uses her intelligence, her intuition, and a few helpful pieces of technology to track the most dangerous predators in our society. She does all of this work anonymously, leaving a package of evidence for the local police department before moving onto her next case.

What about people who make the decision NOT to get involved? We have all read or heard about instances in which horrifying crimes were taking place and bystanders did nothing to stop the violence. There is the recent incident in which a teenage girl was gang raped for more than two hours outside of her high school homecoming dance in Oakland, California. More than two dozen people witnessed the attacks and did not bother to call the police. The media reports were everywhere—what is wrong with our young people today that they can be so callous and apathetic when a heinous crime is being committed in front of their very eyes?

The decision to not get involved when you see a crime taking place is known as the bystander effect. It is a term developed within the field of social psychology and it refers to the hesitancy of a person to take action during an emergency situation when other people are present. Sometimes, we make the assumption that another person will help. In other instances, the bystander effect can occur because we are waiting to see how other observers react and, as a result, no one acts at all.

What do you think?

Do you know that you would act if you saw someone was being violently attacked?

Are there circumstances in which you would hesitate?

Please share your thoughts.

New Review -Dead Game By Jennifer Chase is the second book in the Emily Stone series.

Title: Dead Game
Author: Jennifer Chase
Publisher: Outskirts Press Inc.
Book URL: Click Here
Date: Available Now
ISBN:978-1-4327-5128-9
Format: Electronic; Print
Page Count: 370
Genre: Suspense Romance
Reviewer: Teresa E.
Rating: 5

Emily's has dedicated her life to locating missing children and get them back with their families at all costs. It is a compulsion for her that almost led to her death, but in the end bonding with her a now ex-policeman who is her confidant, lover, and partner, Rick. They are on a case of a missing child and Emily is determined to locate the child before it is to late. With her profiling background, Emily is able to piece together information that would seem to the police as insignificant. Today is a good day and Emily finds not only the child, but captures the kidnapper getting away before the police arrive. At the same time, Scott has arrived home finding an email from EagleEye, an Internet spy game where the members are sent information and they need to decipher clues. Unfortunately, while Scott is working on a clue to save another agent he is kidnapped and killed in a manner similar to a made for TV thriller, filmed for posterity. The game is afoot, but who is the murderer? Detective Duncan is assigned to the crime with Detective Grainger. Grainger is hopeful that the phantom detective will help them out, but Duncan doesn't believe he exists. The person they are talking about is Emily who finds, documents the cases before anonymously sending the information to the police. The body count could continue and the only thing in common about the people is their membership in the same Internet spy game. Once a police officer Milt begins to see a pattern, but before he managed to uncover the truth he was killed in the same voyeuristic manner. Rick received a call from Milt's nephew Derek about his death and the strange occurrences surrounding it. Rick and Emily decide to look into the situation, but they never expected that their own lives would become entangled in the mystery.

Ms. Chase has created a fast paced story that grips the reader from the very beginning. The headings of the chapters with the day and time of day speeds up the story as the time frame drives the plot. Emily is a fascinating combination of world weary, determined, loving, and driven person who has to help the people that can't help themselves. Rick's love for Emily had him give up everything to help and protect her. The character of Jordan who on the surface is a hedonistic computer techie only out for personal pleasure, but looks can be deceiving. The mystery was a fascination to watch as it unfolded, but I wasn't able to solve it any quicker than the police. The way Emily and her friends used their technical skills to uncover the clues was riveting to watch. The life and death chases were thrilling and scary as Rick, Emily, Derek, and Jordan put their lives on the line to put the killers away. I for one can't wait for the next book in the Emily Stone series.

To order Jennifer Chases Novels just click the link below:

"Compulsion" and "Dead Game"

Or better yet you can order the package of the two books directly from Jennifer Chase, She will sign each of the books for you!

"Click Here"

Thank you Teresa for the very nice review!

Jennifer Chase

A Report from Inspector Buster

Psst… Over here… Under the comforter… Hi, my name is Buster even though I wanted to be named Jean-Luc, but that’s a story for another day. My mom fostered me when I was barely a week old and then adopted me because she loved me so much. She’s cool like that. I’m hiding right now because mom’s cranky today… she said something about she needs to write a certain number of pages today. I’m not sure, but I think she’s writing about a dog cop and a serial killer… sounds like a good story. Wait… someone’s coming… more later…

Following the Hectic Roadmap of Bloodstain Patterns to Solve the Crime

I find it absolutely fascinating how bloodstain patterns are interpreted and examined to help solve a crime. This can answer so many questions on where the perpetrator was standing, how tall the perpetrator was, weapon used, and how the crime was committed. Once you get past the “blood” part and really take an objective look at the patterns, it reveals a whole new perspective of what had transpired during the crime.

The importance of blood spatter evidence can’t be overestimated. Notes and sketches always supplement the photographs of bloodstains. It is noted the detailed description of the physical characteristics of the blood patterns, such as size, location, shape, distribution, and physical features. There are other notations made on the actual color of the blood, reddish-brown or blood like. Further, the blood is then classified into categories similar to how fingerprints get classified.

There has been a new methodical technique for documenting bloodstain pattern as part of the crime scene analysis. This technique allows for the complete documentation of bloodstain patterns. It is essentially photo road map that tells the story. Toby L. Wolson of the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Crime Laboratory developed the road mapping technique.

To properly document the bloodstain pattern road map:

1. Identify the patterns you want to document and photograph the patterns just as they appear.

2. Use yellow scales with tape or glue so that they surround the blood pattern both vertically and horizontally.

3. Label each separate blood pattern with an adhesive mapping symbol, such as A, B, C, etc.

4. Find the most important individual stains within each pattern and label with an adhesive scale, showing the impact pattern, directionality, and area of convergence.

5. You are ready to take your overall, medium distance, and close up photographs.

“All objects in the universe are unique.”

I love this quote from Nickel & Fisher in their book Crime Science: Methods of Forensic Detection. I think it definitely speaks loudly for the road map of bloodstain pattern evidence.

“No two things that happen by chance ever happen in exactly the same way. No two things are ever constructed or manufactured in exactly the same way. No two things wear in exactly the same way. No two things ever break in exactly the same way.”

Jennifer Chase
Author & Criminologist

Taking a Stained Glass Class

This one of my first projects.

"Dead Game" Kindle Version is now out for sale!

CLICK HERE: And you can purchase your copy.....................enjoy!

To Outline or Not to Outline

I’m a person who makes lists and crosses things off when I’ve completed them. It makes me feel positive about what I’ve accomplished when I can see each item marked off that long list. In fact, I make a lot of lists. It comes from working in the corporate world, specifically in the accounting area, that I found out quickly that lists and outlines were the best way for me to stay on target and to finish projects within the deadline.

So… the big question is… “Should you completely outline your novel or not?”

I love asking other writers if they outline their novel first or jump right into chapter one and never look back. And truthfully, I’ve received answers that are almost split right down the middle of this debate.

People seem to ask me quite frequently if I outline my stories or not. My answer is always the same – yes, I create a complete outline of my story before I begin writing the actual chapters.

Why? It makes the chapter writing part a breeze and you don’t have to do as many rewrites. It’s a blueprint, roadmap, or snapshot of your entire story. Basically, the completion of your book takes less time with a completed outline.

Does it stifle your story and creativity doing a complete outline? No way, because you can change anything you want along the way. It’s just really nice to have an outlined first draft of your story. That way you completely know what’s working and what isn’t, you can change a portion of your story, add a new character, or ax part of the storyline that isn’t working. You can do all of this before you begin writing the chapters. It doesn’t get any better than that.

These are my 7 basic outline areas that I use for all my projects:

1. Character lists with a complete background from physical characteristics to internal and external goals. It resembles a type of rap sheet of everything that I can create for each of the main and supporting characters. Minor characters just have a few sentences, but they are still important too.

2. Settings

3. Freestyle of the plot outline with the beginning, middle, and end.

4. Timeline of crime and character backgrounds necessary to the plot.

5. Research is one of the most important things for any story whether it’s fiction or nonfiction. I research everything that I can think and then even a little bit more. It’s great because even if you don’t use some of your research in one story you will probably be able to use it in another.

6. Story evolution that incorporates the conflicts, struggles, and resolutions. This helps me to be able to see if there is enough tension and that the story moves forward at a good pace. It’s very helpful in writing thrillers to make sure that the tension is escalating.

7. Finally, I decide how many chapters I’m going to write to achieve my story goal. I then put all the information from the above steps into a chronological sequence, which will eventually be my finished chapters.

Creating a complete outline may not be for every writer, but I find that it works for me. I would love to hear your comments on if you should create a complete outline or not.

Happy Writing!

Jennifer Chase
Author & Criminologist