Featured Book: Twisted Confessions

April 22nd, 2010 by Courtney

Twisted Confessions: The True Story Behind the Kitty Genovese and Barbara Kralik Murder Trials by Charles E. Skoller is an important book to read because it outlines the Kitty Genovese murder case which happened in the 60s in Queens, New York. This case is an important one in history because it spawned a lot of research into what is called Genovese Syndrome or the Bystander Effect, a psychological phenomenon that occurs in bystanders of emergency situations: it refers to those times when people witnessing an emergency situation offer no help. Interest arose in this phenomenon from the Kitty Genovese murder because for a half an hour, Kitty Genovese screamed and plead for help as her attacker stabbed her repeatedly, left the scene for 10 minutes and returned to finish what he’d started. 38 people witnessed these attacks, heard the screams, saw the man leave and come back, and did nothing to help.

This phenomenon is important to consider when looking at any crime. These 38 people acted in a way that none of them would have predicted. Most people would like to think they would help someone in a situation like that, and most of you reading this right now are probably passing judgment on the neighbors, thinking how could they have possibly ignored a woman getting murdered in front of their very own eyes. The answer, is that no one really knows how their psyche is going to react to stressful situations until it happens and it’s a rule that applies to every last person on Earth. We all like to think we are righteous avengers ready to protect our fellow man, but we are not. We are only humans.

Criminal cases are based far too much on what we think should happen or how we think people should act. Telling the truth while on the witness stand, for instance. Normal, innocent, everyday people are willing to watch a young woman be murdered in front of them without so much as dialing one digit for help, but we have no doubt that these same people will come to court and tell the truth or remember everything as vividly as convicting a human being for life requires? My point is not that people are inherently bad, it’s just to say that human behavior cannot be predicted just because the person has a lack of a criminal record or goes to church. People lie, people cheat, people steal. Good people. This book, even though it had no mention of wrongful convictions or unfair trials, illustrated for me why eye witness testimony should never be considered evidence in any case. People are just so simply too unpredictable.

For those of you who spend a lot of time reading about wrongful convictions, you’ll also find yourself questioning whether or not one of the suspects mentioned in the book is actually innocent. The book is extremely interesting and historically important, so go check it out: