What Prevents Bystanders From Stopping Gender-Based Violence – Asian Scientist Magazine

Asian Scientist Magazine (Jan. 24, 2023) — Victims of gender-based violence (GBV) experience devastating consequences ranging from psychological effects to severe physical harm. In public GBV incidents, bystanders have an opportunity to help victims escape the crises and empower them to seek help.

Despite their potentially life-saving role, research shows that bystanders can face certain barriers that hold them back from offering help to GBV victims. A 1970 situational model of bystander behavior suggests that they go through several stages while witnessing violence: becoming aware of the situation, identifying it as a problem, taking responsibility, deciding what to do and ultimately, acting to prevent the perpetrator from committing the crime.

The influence of the barriers bystanders may experience at each of these stages has been poorly defined until now. Sihyun Park, an associate professor at the Department of Nursing at Chung-Ang University in Korea, led a study published in Trauma, Violence and Abuse, that systematically reviewed and analysed the barriers repressing bystander interventions during GBV.

“It is evident that the bystanders face some barriers that refrain them from stepping in during an incidence of GBV. To improve bystander intervention, it is important to identify these barriers, understand their powers on bystanders’ likelihood to intervene, and to develop evidence-based educational initiatives that prioritize the most critical barriers,” explained Park.

From a total of 38 studies, the team extracted and categorized the barriers under six different domains: failure to notice, failure to perceive it as risk, failure to take responsibility for engaging, lack of bystander competency and failure to take action. The analysis also included an additional hurdle that was identified in a more recent 2021 study suggesting that failure of previous intervention attempts also discouraged bystanders to act to stop GBV.

The researchers then calculated the domain-specific effect sizes (ES) and also explored the impact of bystander population, gender, and types of GBV situations on ESs.

The results revealed that the most significant barrier that deterred bystanders from intervening was the negative emotions that arose from their previous unsuccessful GBV interventions. With its high prevalence among bystander populations, the study authors suggested future educational programs to be particularly mindful of addressing this factor.

The study also found that the bystanders were more reluctant to intervene in cases of violence against women and sexual assault than in cases of intimate partner violence.

Reviewing studies in academic databases also enabled the authors to point out a gap in diversity within existing bystander-related literature. The predominant focus has been on white, young and highly educated populations, with few or no studies investigating bystander intervention among minority populations such as LGBTQIA+ individuals and people of colour.

Moreover, Park and his colleagues emphasized the importance of exploring cultural and generational influences on bystander intent and intervening behaviours.

Together, these findings provide an important guide for further research and the design for effective and targeted educational programs that could encourage a more proactive community response against GBV.

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Source: Chung-Ang University in Korea ; Image: Shelly Liew/ Asian Scientist Magazine

The article can be found at A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Bystander’s Barriers to Intervene in Gender-Based Violence and the Role of Failed Prior Attempts.

Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.