The Kitty Genovese case presents a monumental example of how a failed system can lead to catastrophic outcomes. The worst aspect of the catastrophe is that half a century after it happened, there is no guarantee that it could not happen again. Further, instead of the case being used to evaluate the actual issue, mental health, it was used to canvass the misconceived issue dubbed the ‘bystander effect’ (Perry, 2014). Instead of investigating the failures of the government in preventing a repeat of what happened to both Kitty Genovese and Winston Moseley, the focus was erroneously placed on inexistent 38 bystanders who never came to the rescue of Genovese.
For background, a 29-year-old married man with a stable job, Moseley, leaves his wife in bed and drives off in search of a woman to kill, according to his confession. Out of mere chance, Mosely observes Genovese driving past an intersection, and follows her. He proceeds to stab her with a knife fatally precisely for that purpose then rapes and whereas she bleeds to death, takes her money and leaves her for dead (McFadden, 2016). Even a mundane psychology student can tell from the above that Moseley must have been struggling from a serious mental health issue. Anyone on the fence about the issue would no longer do so after learning that Mosely had raped and killed other women and raped one more after a prison break.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
After Mosely was arrested and made a confession about killing Genovese, he was treated like any other criminal to the detriment of mental health and also American taxpayers. Mosely was subjected to an elaborate criminal trial which was bound to cost taxpayers a fortune (McFadden, 2016). He was then sentenced to death but after an elaborate appellate process, once again at the expense of the taxpayer, his sentence was commuted to life. He would proceed to serve 52 years in prison, which according to cost estimates made by the Vera Institute of Justice, would cost the American taxpayer approximately US$ 15 million (Mills, 2017). In the course of the 52 years, Mosely was also subjected to 18 unsuccessful parole hearings, also at the expense of the taxpayer. Conversely, it would be remiss to ignore the fact that an enterprising young woman, Genovese also died with all her dreams along with her!
All the pains, expenses and losses above would have been avoided had Mosely been diagnosed and treated in time before he could hurt anyone. Had there been an environment free of stigma where a young man with a psychological problem would feel free to seek professional assistance, there is a chance Mosely would have taken it. Had he admitted about his mental health problem, he would have lost his job and family and perhaps end up in a lunatic asylum. The fact that Mosely was able to undertake a college degree in psychology means that he could have been assisted (McFadden, 2016). But instead of a system that would have been willing to spend a few thousand dollars treating Mosely, the broken system in place waited until it was too late then spent almost US$ 20 million for no positive outcome!
As reflected by the discussion above, the Kitty Genovese case is considered as a parody for the stud of psychology in part because it was used to create the misplaced ‘bystander effect.’ However, there was an actual positive lesson that could have been learned from the case to the benefit of all Americans. The lesson is that failing to treat every mental health problem is much more expensive than the cost of any treatment. The opportunity cost of not spending a few tens of thousands of dollars to diagnose and treat Mosely was the loss of two lives and almost US$ 20 million. It is this important lesson that should be attributed to the Kitty Genovese case.
References
McFadden, R. D. (2016, April 04). Winston Moseley, Who Killed Kitty Genovese, Dies in Prison at 81. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/nyregion/winston-moseley-81-killer-of-kitty-genovese-dies-in-prison.html
Mills, E. (2017). How much does it cost to send someone to prison? Retrieved from https://www.marketplace.org/2017/05/15/world/how-much-does-it-cost-send-someone-prison
Perry, S. K., Ph.D. (2014). The Most Famous Murder We Were All Lied to About. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/creating-in-flow/201403/the-most-famous-murder-we-were-all-lied-about
