The Bystander Effect

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 25th Dec 2023

On March 24^th, 1964, a story appeared in the New York Times, stating that 38 people watched - for more than half an hour without intervening – the stabbing of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese. The story came some two weeks after the rape/murder, and was inaccurate in many regards, including the number of people who witnessed the incident. However, it was true that several people had watched the event from their apartment windows and hadn’t called the police – each recognizing that others were watching the stabbing, but unaware as to their reaction(s) and response(s) to it. At the time many...Click To Read More

The Problem with the Right to Remain Silent

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 18th Dec 2023

If you are involved in a physical altercation where afterwards you have to make a claim of self-defense, you will want to make sure that what you say fully supports your claim. The first thing you should be aware of is that when you are making such a claim you are admitting to the use of violence – your argument in making the self-defense claim is that you were legally justified to do so. The importance of this is that if you say you punched someone in order to defend yourself, you can’t go back on this and say you...Click To Read More

Communicating in Conflict

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 11th Dec 2023

When we are trying to communicate to resolve a conflict, we need to ensure that the other person is receptive to what we are saying. At the same time, we need to demonstrate that we are also willing and receptive to hearing what they have to say. However, if we use the same methods and linguistic tools that we do when dealing with and discussing “facts” we are likely to be unsuccessful in accomplishing this. When dealing with a person who is emotional because they are angry, frustrated and/or upset, they aren’t often ready to take a look at the...Click To Read More

Changing Routines

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 4th Dec 2023

Some pieces of safety advice intuitively seem to make sense e.g., don’t walk down dark alleys; when a mugger asks for your wallet throw it on the ground a way from you; always ask for identification before letting any workmen/contractors into your house etc. However, many pieces of advice and safety tips don’t stand up to any form of testing whether superficial or rigorous e.g., when we consider that most street robberies involve more than one offender how does throwing the wallet away from you actually give you an advantage? Another piece of advice I hear a lot involves mixing...Click To Read More