A Study of Theft in Lower Bucks County

Introduction

            Over the course of twelve weeks, I gathered data from the police blotters of my local newspaper, The Advance, in order to assess the nature of theft in Lower Bucks County.  Initially, the purpose was to study the level of absurdity of objects stolen, but during the three months, I learned there was more to observe and draw inferences. 

The methodology I employed was mostly qualitative data with the exception of retail theft amounts.  Each week is marked with the ending Sunday.  For each week, I recorded the types of thefts and the items stolen.  Types of thefts were defined by the crimes as the township reported them.  Examples would be Theft, Burglary, Theft from Vehicle, Stolen Vehicle, Retail Theft, etc.  I did not include credit card fraud or any incident where it was unknown if anything was stolen.  Credit card companies reimburse their customers, and the corporate entity endures the loss.  This study focused on material losses of individuals and brick and mortar retail fronts.

            There is more detail on items stolen.  The qualitative lists of words showed common items, which became categories to account specific incidents per week.  Tables for the number of thefts quantified the number of incidents involving cash, jewelry, vehicles, electronics, etc.  Retail thefts had separate weekly tables, which gave the store’s name, the number of thefts that week, the value of merchandise per incident.  Totals on incidents and dollar amounts, and an average shortage could be calculated.  

There were three tables per week, and instead of showing all 36 tables, only tables and charts displaying cumulative values overall in this study are below.

Results and Analyses

Overall by Town

            In Table 1, each cell shows the calculated total theft in a given week by a reporting police unit.  The totals at the bottom indicate how many incidents occurred in all the participating townships that reported crime for that week.  The towns shown at the far left column are Newtown, Bristol, Middletown, Yardley, Lower Makefield Township (LMT), Bristol Borough, Morrisville, and Northampton.

Table 1

            The next three charts were derived from the processed data in Table 1.  They depict total thefts over time, thefts over time in the townships, and total thefts per town.

Chart 1

            The first chart shows the total thefts over the course of three months.  Stealing was highest in the middle of July, having a total of 60 accounts of theft.  In three weeks, the numbers faltered to only 21 incidents.  From that point, the crime rates for theft and burglary moderately increased, and teetered between 31 and 51 thefts in a given week.  It can be inferred that in Lower Bucks County, incidents of theft increase during the middle of summer.  Unfortunately, this study started later, and the numbers for June’s weeks are uncollected.  It is still possible to conjecture that theft decreased due to juvenile perpetrators entering their next school year, leaving only adult thieves available for offending.

Chart 2

            This chart displays the weekly total for the individual towns.  Middletown and Bristol stand out the most for a few reasons.  Middletown’s jurisdiction encompasses the Oxford Valley Mall and Court areas, which are central to commerce.  The majority of retail theft occurs in Middletown.  Bristol is part of Levittown, which is the tenth largest community in Pennsylvania according to NeighborhoodScout.com.  The thefts reported are from Bristol and other Levittown subsections, hence their numbers are higher.  Yardley and Morrisville have smaller police departments.  Most Yardley residents report to Lower Makefield Township Police Department, since it is the bigger agency with more officers on duty.  Yardley’s police covers mostly the downtown area.

            Interesting to note, during the week ending on August 31^st, Bristol had zero theft and Middletown peaked.  Though, that week Bristol did not report crimes to the newspaper.

Chart 3

  

            This bar chart represents the number of thefts occurring in each town based on reports submitted by each township to the police blotter.  Some towns did not submit crime reports each week.  Morrisville and Northampton appeared two weeks into this study.  Yardley dropped out of the second week, possibly because it has a small police agency.  Newtown reported every week and their theft related crime rates were relatively lower than the other towns.

Chart 4

            Table 2

            Due to the lack of reporting from each town, it is important to show the level of participation each township has in submitting information to the local newspaper.  The uneven submissions skew the data, which I can not help.  Table 2 and Chart 4 show that Newtown, Middletown, and LMT reported all twelve times, and Bristol reported 11. 

Types of Items Stolen

Table 3

Chart 5

 Chart 6

            According to Table 3 and Charts 5 and 6, the four prominent types of theft in this area involve electronics, cash, other financial information, and miscellaneous items.  “Other financial information” includes credit cards, checks, and purses and wallets that contain financial information.

            The other categories also had a range of different possessions, some less obvious than others.  Cars and other vehicles include motorcycles, dirt bikes, quads, and electric bikes.  Car parts included hub caps, vehicular batteries, and even the radio antenna on the back.  Tools included saws, jackhammers, weed whackers, and other lawn equipment.  Change was just loose coins.  Also observable were the incidents involving copper and scrap metals, but there were not enough accounts to designate a category for it, so I put them under miscellaneous.

            The most apparent type of theft is miscellaneous.  People usually steal the most unlikely objects, and the most plausible reason people fall victim is that they do not suspect anyone stealing these things.  Thieves derive a twisted sense of empowerment in their stealing, but when they loot the most ridiculous things, they are mysterious idiots.  I think I have read wilder crimes in Nancy Drew novels during my youth than these Boxcar Children type of thefts, where the villains steal random things that serve the villain no purpose.  Ex.  Wow, you stole a window!  The thieves in Lower Bucks are just as peculiar.

            Since I had noticed eccentric items reported stolen in the past, I had wanted to generate a list of the stupidest and weirdest items stolen.  Here is my Hall of Lame.

Hall of Lame

            Mailboxes, two manhole covers, bag of cat litter, windshield wipers, soda, carpeting, construction vehicle batteries, “numerous cartons of cigarettes,” headlights, vacuum, carpet shampooing machine, fire extinguisher, charging cable to iPod, “car blinkers,” backpack leaf blower, USPS packages, 8 cans of baby formula, $965 worth of razors, 12 red Honda generators, lottery tickets, car seat, bookbags, driver’s license, jackhammer, hub cap, sweatshirt, microwave, golf clubs, stereo faceplate, power pruner, newspapers throughout a neighborhood, rammer from construction equipment, sunglasses, 5 air conditioner compressors, cellphone chargers, hammock, $8 from a purse, two raccoon traps, kayak, aluminum canoe, flatbed truck, pool stick, two motors from furnace, car keys, sneakers, sweatpants, baseball bats, radio antenna cord on car, power drill, stereo speakers, quilted backpack, butcher knives, ladder, lock, cement Marine Corps plaque, water meter, and “electric dog fence and gift certificate.”

            Some of these items would seem normal.  However, stealing someone’s driver’s license is pointless if you don’t resemble person in the photo.  Car keys would seem average, but they are useless if you can not find the car.  If a person steals a sweater, depending on its description, it may be recognized if he or she wears it in public.  Used sneakers that probably don’t fit are pointless, unless sold online, but who wants to buy used, smelly sneakers?  Sunglasses can be pricy, but this is all the thief could take?  As for the postal packages, the boxes could contain items that the thief has no desire to own.  Winning the lottery is slim so stealing lottery tickets would be lame, but if they yielded winnings, that would be low.

            Some things in the list would seem cool to have, like the kayak and the hammock.  Though, they are awkward things to steal, bulky.  The thief had the gall to enter a property probably with the knowledge that the items were there.  They had premeditated the burglaries carefully in order to satisfy their greed.  Other likely items would be useful like the microwave, backpack leaf blower, power drill, and weed whackers.  These could be stolen on impulse, but they are still odd and awkward things to conceal, even in a getaway car.

            Stereo speakers would seem like worthy materialistic items to loot, but these came from a burglary.  The burglar just took the speakers and left the stereo.  Other items are useless accessories, like cellphone chargers and an iPod wire.

Retail Theft

Table 4

             Table 4 shows the totals and averages for retail theft per week in the whole Lower Bucks County area as provided in the police blotter.  Theft ranges between $300 and $18,400 per week.  The average theft is between $177 and $1,225.  This information is further illustrated in Chart 7. 

Chart 7

Chart 8

In Chart 7, the average appears to be flat compared to the total thefts which dwarf the average line.  By focusing only on the average, Chart 8 shows that the line for average thefts per week is similar to the line for total thefts from Chart 7.  They both start declining from a high point and peak in the middle.  The average line in Chart 8 rises toward the end, whereas the total line in Chart 7 declines and becomes closer to the average, since thefts were fewer.

            As stated before, the majority of retail theft occurs in Middletown due to the mall, the court, and the high number of stores surrounding those areas.  Table 5 displays all the stores that reported losses.  There were 20 identified stores and two were unnamed.  Totals are accounted for each store or chain over the course of twelve weeks.  Totals per week are also shown, which were used in Table 4 and Chart 7.

Table 5

 

            The top three stores for retail theft were JC Penney, Giant, and Sesame Place.  Giant is a chain of grocery stores, and thefts occur at more than one location.  JC Penney had the highest reports of retail theft and only from its sole location in Oxford Valley Mall, which is very close to Sesame Place.  Sesame Place is a theme park, but they have gift shops.  A security guard is usually situated in the Sesame Place’s larger shops like Mr. Hooper’s Emporium and Finder’s Keepers. 

Table 6

Table 6 gives the overall numbers for the top three high incident stores.  Chart 9 allows a visual comparison of the numbers from Table 7, regarding total thefts per week among these stores.

Table 7

Chart 9

            Although the chart above presents three different lines, they do have three peaks and two troughs in common.  From July 20^th through August 3^rd, JC Penney and Sesame Place nearly parallel each other.  For three weeks, Sesame Place and Giant reported no shortage, and JC Penney was at zero for that middle week.  In the week ending August 31^st, JC Penney and Sesame Place peak in a parallel motion again have closer numbers.  Giant rises slightly at that point.  In the week ending September 14^th, all three retails have zero thefts.  JC Penney and Giant’s theft incidents rise thereafter, practically coinciding.  Since Sesame Place is a theme park with mostly water rides, theft steadily declined toward the end of summer.

Trending Types of Shoplifting

            At Giant, CVS, and Rite Aid, there have been numerous accounts of razors and baby formula being stolen in bulk.  People are stealing hundreds of dollars in razors; $400, $520; $965.  People are also stealing up to eight cartons of baby formula.  These two items show up repeatedly in the police blotter.  Why?

At first this seems ridiculous.  It’s not.  Both items are resold for drug related activities.  Baby formula resells fast because there are no substitutes for a baby, which leads to price elasticity.  Parents will buy baby formula regardless of price increases.  Thieves resell the baby formula at non-chain stores for very cheap.  Since big box stores like Walmart and Target run little stores out of business, buying these stolen goods could be tempting, because they could undercut the big chain’s prices on a non-substitutable product.  The money the thief gains funds his/her drug habit.

Razors are more complicated, because it involves a network of professional criminals.  Thieves, known as boosters, steal the razors and hand them to their middle man, a fence.  The fence will sell the razors for half price at small shops, and then yield more money for drugs than just stealing and reselling.  Sometimes the fences will ship their stolen goods out of the area and yield revenue.  This has been termed as “Organized Retail Crime.”

©2014 Caroline Friehs

Original Date Posted:  October 25, 2014

References:

The Advance (2014 July 20).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

The Advance (2014 July 27).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

The Advance (2014 Aug. 3).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

The Advance (2014 Aug. 10).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

The Advance (2014 Aug. 17).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

The Advance (2014 Aug. 24).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

The Advance (2014 Aug. 31).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

The Advance (2014 Sep. 7).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

The Advance (2014 Sep. 14).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

The Advance (2014 Sep. 21).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

The Advance (2014 Sep. 28).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

The Advance (2014 Oct. 5).  Police Report.  The Advance of Bucks County.  [Paper copy].  Retrievable from:  www.buckslocalnews.com.

Hicks, M (2013 Oct. 31).  Thieves stealing baby formula, but not to feed children.  Q13Fox.  Retrieved from:  http://q13fox.com/2013/10/31/thieves-stealing-baby-formula-but-not-to-feed-children/

Neighborhood Scout (2014).  Levittown, PA.  Real estate and demographic information. 

[Website].  Retrieved from:  http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/pa/levittown/

Rodriguez, E (2014 Feb. 6).  Razor blade thefts part of a growing issue.  WIVB4.  Retrieved from:  http://wivb.com/2014/02/06/razor-blade-thefts-part-of-growing-issue/

Bigotry Based Bullying - Examining Five Cases Where Autistic Teenage Boys Were Victimized

Introduction

                After reading the recent ice bucket prank incident, I noticed a trend in bullying situations where autistic teenage boys were targeted.  The following episodes are within the past year and there was a pattern in the criminals’ behaviors.  All perpetrators videotaped their own evidence, thus self-incriminating.  None of the perpetrators were charged with hate crime, however every victim was targeted for their autism, or the aggressor was aware of the victim’s mental differences. 

                The following section describes each of the five cases.  Then attributes of these cases are collated into two tables in the analysis section.

Case 1:  Bay Village, Ohio; September 2014

                Bullies coaxed a 15-year-old boy with autism to participate in the “Ice Bucket Challenge” for raising awareness to ALS.  They had him strip down to his boxer shorts, and stand in front of a garage.  Instead of ice water, the perpetrators poured a bucket of urine, feces, spit, and cigarette butts onto him.  They had videotaped it with the victim’s phone and uploaded it to Instagram. 

                 Aftermath:  The bullies are under investigation.  The victim approves of having the video online to raise awareness of bullying children of special needs.

Case 2:  Okeechobee, Florida; August 2014

                Aaron Hill, age 16, was invited to a party where an adult, Evadean Lydecker, gave the teens alcohol.  Hill felt sick from drinking whiskey and needed to lie down.  When he woke, he was ordered to go outside and fight.  Hill was unwilling.  Then, one of the other teens, Andrew Wheeler, age 18, came inside and started beating, kicking him and knocking his head into the wall.  He also dragged him across the floor by his hair.  Hill was curled up on the floor, protecting his head, and screaming.  This segment of the conflict was recorded on a partier’s phone.  The other partiers witnessed and laughed at the victim.  The adult, Lydecker, was outside, and refused to intervene because she believed Hill deserved it.

                After the infamous video clip ended, Wheeler forced Hill outside and choked him till unconsciousness.  The police found Hill lying in the middle of the road.  He told them he had been beaten and forced to walk to his current resting place.

                Wheeler was proud enough to post the video on his Facebook account, and the video went viral, causing public moral outrage.  The police found it during their investigation.

                 Aftermath:  In an interview with police, Wheeler claims Hill was fighting the girls, refusing to leave, and that Hill tried to punch him.  He said he wanted to record the incident, and that it only showed the latter half of the conflict.  This is not worth believing.  With Hill on the ground, crying, it is not plausible that he just instigated a fight.  If Wheeler wanted to record evidence of himself being victimized, he would have waited for Hill to supposedly try hitting him again.  He was not trying to catch someone in the act of violence.  He wanted to record his own violence, a one-sided fight with an autistic boy.  Then he uploaded it on Facebook, which only further showed he was proud of his actions.
                Wheeler also claimed he was going to drive Hill home.  Apparently strangling him and leaving him unconscious in the middle of the street was “driving him home.”  Wheeler had been called to come to the house and drive Hill home, or was this a preconceived excuse to cover the other possible reason they called Wheeler, to beat up the kid?  Hill denied Wheeler’s claims against him.
               Wheeler was charged with Child Abuse Without Great Bodily Harm, and Lydecker was charged with corrupting minors.  Even if Hill really did get aggressive and black out, he was under the influence of alcohol provided by Lydecker.  If Lydecker never gave the teens alcohol, this situation could have been avoided.

Hate Crime or not a Hate Crime?

                                Wheeler’s story sounds like a conflict unrelated to Hill’s condition, but it is in Wheeler’s best interest not to admit to hate crime, which would give him more years in prison.  However, how did the internet know the victim was autistic?  Did Wheeler label the video that way, or did someone else disclose that information?  One girl in the background called Hill a baby for crying.  Wheeler uploaded a one-sided fight more likely to impress his peers with his so-called fighting ability, rather than promoting awareness to the conflict that supposedly occurred.  His video seems to be an expression of arrogance; domination over a perceptively weak male.  Although, Wheeler never slurs “retard” or any suggestive epitaph, part of his pride is in fighting someone who is disadvantaged, literally on the floor.  Would he do this to someone without special needs?  At this point, it is unknown.

Case 3:  Columbus, Georgia; August 2014

                Four gang members attacked a 17-year-old boy who went to their high school, with full knowledge that he had a disorder.  Jarvis Tatum, Saul Jackson, another juvenile, and another member called, “Junior,” forced the victim on all-fours in the middle of a basketball court in a park.  They kicked him until blood came from his mouth.  Then the thugs took his wallet, cellphone, and his clothes.  They had stripped him down to his boxers, and left the victim to walk home in that state.  One of the gang members video recorded the entire incident and uploaded it onto Facebook, which was anonymously reported, leading to Tatum, Jackson, and an unnamed juvenile’s arrest.  Junior was still to be apprehended.

Case 4:  Southern Maryland, March 2014

                 Two girls, age 17 and 15, forced their 16-year-old autistic classmate to do sexual acts with their dog.  They threatened him with a knife to his throat, kicked him in the groin, and dragged him across the floor by his hair.  They eventually took him to a nearby pond, and forced him to walk on the icy pond.  He fell through the ice, and the girls did not help him out.  They videotaped the whole exploit.

                The victim was noticeably autistic, and his parents told the police he had “diminished mental capacity.”  There was no way the perpetrators did not know.  Lauren Bush, 17, and the other juvenile had previous abused the victim on a number of occasions.  The autistic boy did not understand that they intended ill will to him, and perceived the girls as friends.  They took advantage of his poor judgment in character and continued harming him until this incident.

                Aftermath:  Lauren Bush was charged as an adult for first and second degree assault, false imprisonment, and solicitation for child pornography.  The other juvenile was charged with same offenses and referred to the State Department for Juvenile Services.

Case 5:  Melcher, Iowa; November 2013

                 Levi Null, a 13-year-old boy with Asperger’s, was physically and verbally abused in a video recorded by his bullies at Melcher-Dallas High School.  The video was uploaded online, and it showed Null being taunted over his condition and punched in the face.  The teachers seemed careless for letting the bullying happen.

                Aftermath:  This story is televised on the news, and numerous parents react online to defend the bullies.  The bullies were disciplined at school, the video was eventually deleted, but the principal, Josh Ehn, did not believe that any bullying took place in the video.  He also said that it’s the students’ responsibility to resolve bullying issues.  That explains why the teachers turned a blind eye.
                The parents and legal guardians of the bullies supported the cruelty.  Levi Weatherly, one of the bullies’ parents, stated, “I would say three-fourths of this stuff he brings on himself and probably a fourth of it is bullying that shouldn’t be going on.”  Jamie Harrison, the uncle of the physical abuser, was proud that his nephew punched Null for calling him a “nasty name.”  It’s not an eye-for-an-eye.  It’s a punch for a word!

Analysis

Before examining the incidents, it is important to understand the socio-economic surroundings for each case; Table 1.  In Table 2, the incident information is collated to enable visual comparison.

Table 1

                Each incident happened in a different state in America; Ohio, Iowa, Maryland, Georgia, and Florida.  Bullying that targets special needs children is widespread, whether it’s in Southern states, the Midwest, or the East coast.  Most of the locations were middle class suburbs with relatively low crime rates.  Columbus, Georgia is an exception, since it is a large city with high crime rates.  The perpetrators were not only the victim’s classmates, but they represented a gang, calling themselves, “The Street Celebrities.” 

Table 2

                These incidents are fairly recent despite anti-bullying programs.  This trend could be a direct reaction to society’s anti-bullying attitudes, or indifference to what society thinks.  The former implies rebelling against the progressive ideal, and the latter implies that anti-bullying programs have been ineffective.

                All the victims were males between ages 13-17 who had some form of autism.  Since these disorders are scaled in a spectrum, not every person’s autism is alike.  Some were low functioning enough that their condition was noticeable, but a student’s Asperger’s was still known to his harassers regardless of how high functioning he was. 

The perpetrators were teenage classmates or grown adults.  Despite age, they all had one common attribute, pride.  Their pride led to their self-incrimination by providing their own video evidence.  They were proud of their actions enough to video tape themselves committing the crime, and then to show it off to the world, thinking people would be impressed.  The perpetrators were unaware of the possibility of public outrage.  Since parents in the Melcher, Iowa case reacted in favor of the aggressors, there are probably more people with that mentality.  In a society that has people exhibiting victim blaming, bully coddling, and the attitude about a “generation of wimps,” it is feasible a significant portion would favor the bully’s brutality against the weak and innocent; thinking humiliation is humor.  Each aggressor viewed their victim as inferior, unmanly, stupid, and/or deserving of their abuse.  Part of why males seem to be the targets, among these cases, is because the victim is regarded as less masculine for not being brutal or fitting a negative male stereotype.  The other possibility is that all the victims had good grades, which may have induced the jealousy of their harassers.  Null had to have skipped a grade level to attend high school at age 13.

Lauren Bush and her juvenile accomplice were the only abusers not to upload their content online, possibly.  The police could not find their video anywhere on the internet.  Perhaps they were being less proud and slyer than the other criminals who had no discretion and no foresight to public reaction.

Focusing on the types of abuse, all incidents involved mental, psychological abuse, since degradation and international exposure were integral to the victimization.  Most of the victims were physically abused; punched, kicked, hair pulled; slammed into a wall.  The Bay Village, Ohio boy endured a physical level of humiliation because it involved the bodily fluids physically covering his whole body and potentially causing medical harm.  This physical abuse does not hurt in the way as getting punched, but the urine and feces could have flooded his eyes and mouth.  This could have induced his body to vomit the fluids foreign to his own body.  Imagine your stomach vomiting someone else’s urine and fecal matter!  It’s not so funny anymore, is it?

Lauren Bush and her accomplice were also very sadistic since their crimes were sexually abusive in nature.  They sexually victimized an autistic person and their dog.  By forcing their autistic peer to perform lewd acts with their dog on tape, they were creating child and animal pornography.  They were willfully harming a disabled child and their own pet.  Moreover, if the victim could not emerge from the ice pond, he could have died from hypothermia.  Without any help in getting out of the ice rink, he was forced to rely solely on his own ability.

In both the Iowa and the Florida cases, adults present were neglectful.  In Georgia, adults at a back to school event noticed the victim walking home in his forced half nakedness, but did not contact police.  Besides that, the gang was isolated with their victim like the Maryland and Ohio cases.

Every perpetrator was sanctioned in some way.  Most were either charged or charges were pending.  The only ones who did not receive any legal consequences were the Iowa teens who punched their classmate.  The discipline was internal to the school.  The other consequence is the backlash of the media and the public.  Videos angered the masses.  Incidents were aired on the news.  Although the Iowa case was positively received by pro-bully parents, the majority of America’s public disagrees with the abuse.  America’s angry reaction to bullying signifies that there is hope for the future in reducing this harmful behavior.

©2014 Caroline Friehs

Originally Posted:  8/10/2014

References

Advameg, Inc (2014).  City-Data.com.  [Website].  Retrieved from:  http://www.city-data.com/

Advameg, Inc (2014).  City-Data.com.  Crime Rate in Columbus, Georgia.  [Web page].  Retrieved from:  http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Columbus-Georgia.html

Associated Press (2014 Mar. 12).  Two Maryland teen girls bullied apparent autistic boy, authorities say.  FoxNews.com.  Retrieved from:  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/03/12/two-maryland-teen-girls-bullied-apparent-autistic-boy-authorities-say/

Cush, A (2014 Sep. 4).  Bullies Dump Feces, Urine, on Autistic Boy in Evil Ice Bucket “Prank.”  Gawker.com.  Retrieved from:  http://gawker.com/bullies-dump-feces-urine-on-autistic-boy-in-evil-ice-b-1630536729

McCormack, S (2014 Aug. 16).  Teen Arrested After Video Of Him Beating Boy With Autism Goes Viral: Cops (Graphic Video).  Huff Post – Crime.  Retrieved from:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/16/teen-arrested-beating-autism-syndrome_n_5682693.html

Osborne, T (2014 Sep. 5).  Bullies Accused Of Dousing Autistic Teen With Bodily Fluids And Feces In Sick “Ice Bucket Challenge” Prank.  Investigation Discovery – Crime Feed.  Retrieved from:  http://crimefeed.com/2014/09/juveniles-use-ice-bucket-challenge-pull-sick-move-autistic-teen/

Pfeiffer, E (2013 Nov. 20).  Iowa parents defending bullying of autistic teen.  Yahoo News.  Retrieved from:  http://news.yahoo.com/iowa-town-defends-bullying-of-autistic-teen-203249332.html

Renzulli, D (2014 Aug. 16).  Autistic teen beaten, robbed, and stripped of clothes at park.  WTVM.com.  Retrieved from:  http://www.wtvm.com/story/26286358/autistic-teen-beaten-robbed-and-stripped-of-clothes-at-park

Rosin, H (2014 Mar. 14).  Sadistic Girls Bully Autistic Boy.  Boy Still Considers Them His Friends.  Slate.com.  Retrieved from:  http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/03/14/autistic_boy_abused_in_maryland_why_did_he_think_his_bullies_were_his_friends.html

Sigona, M (2014 Aug. 20).  Caught On Tape:  Autistic Teen Beaten By Suspect While Others Stood Around And Laughed.  Investigation Discovery – Crime Feed.  Retrieved from:  http://crimefeed.com/2014/08/caught-tape-autistic-teen-beaten-suspect-others-stood-around-laughed/

Trulia, Inc (2014).  Morganza Community Info.  [Web page].  Retrieved from:  http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Morganza-Maryland/community-info/

Wolfe, J (2014 Aug. 19).  Two arrested in viral video of autistic teen beating.  NBC - 11 Alive - Atlanta.  Retrieved from:  http://www.11alive.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/08/19/two-arrested-in-viral-video-of-autistic-teen-beating/14274353/

Yan, H. & Baldacci, M (2014 Sept. 10).  Cops identify people behind ice bucket prank on autistic teen.  CNN.com.  Retrieved from:  http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/09/us/horrific-ice-bucket-challenge/ 

Zinni, M (2014 Sept 3).  Mom:  Ice Bucket Challenge turned into sick joke against son with autism.  Fox 8 Cleveland.  Retrieved from:  http://fox8.com/2014/09/03/mom-ice-bucket-challenge-turned-into-sick-joke-against-son-with-autism/

Bystanders’ Roles in Witnessing Bullying and Violent Crime

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=790590087621312&set=vb.567254213288235&type=3&theater

 

The link above shows a video taped study conducted by college students, showing people’s reactions to bullying.  The camera person hid while two students conducted a mock-bullying situation right in front of people.  They repeated their experiment in different locations on school campus, drawing varying reactions.  Out of all the bystanders, five advocated, 17 were passive or careless, and one person was hesitant but wanted to help. 

In the video from the previous blog entry, Jean Kilbourne said that objectification is the first step in justifying violence toward another person.  The same is done with black people, gay people, and other people who historically have been dehumanized.  Bullying victims are almost always dehumanized.  The unidentified students portrayed archetypical stereotyped roles in bullying scenarios.  The fake-bully, who looked like a “homeboy” type, was physically abusing the nerd-victim into writing his paper for him.  He literally treated him like he was a broken vending machine for homework assignments.  The bully demonstrated objectification of a human being.

Most of the people witnessing the twisted treatment ignored the abuse.  People who were walking, kept walking.  People sitting even stood up and walked away.  My addition to Jean Kilbourne’s point is it is possible for people to objectify themselves.  They were not helping.  They functioned like ants filing toward a colony.  Are ants living things?  Yes, but they are not human, therefore from the victim’s perspective (and probably the aggressor’s too) they have dehumanized themselves.  They might as well be marching robots.

If the victim is objectified long term; dehumanized from the rest of the self-dehumanizing population, the victim’s mental state may change in a way that he/she does not feel as responsible for his/her actions.  The person long deprived of feeling equal, may feel in future conflicts after snapping or transferring the violent behavior that, “You caused me to react that way,” “I had no other choice,” “I had to do this,” and quoting Cho Seung Hui, the Virginia Tech shooter, “You made me do this!”

Bullying and Bystander Maltreatment are precursors to school shootings, as I will demonstrate in my upcoming presentation on this subject.  Bullying is more obvious, but bystander maltreatment encourages the continuation of abuse.  People can either be complicit or cruel and heckling.  No one in the video was making rude comments or cheering the aggressor.  They were complicit, passively allowing it to happen.  Toward the end of the video the message reads, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”  The victim gets the impression that people do not care.  If the abuse starts in childhood, then the bystanders dehumanize themselves earlier, while the victim is stripped of dignity.  The result is that all parties eventually become objectified.  Because the dehumanization is in the long term, the ideas become deeply ingrained in the person.  The angry victim is like boiling water.  The water is blamed by society for boiling, rather than the source of the heat.  The water has no other choice than to boil.  The shooter can not see another choice than revenge.  If people objectify themselves, then they become plastic ducks in a shooting gallery.  It does not feel wrong to poke bullet holes in them, and they aren’t even real ducks, just plastic.

 

So why do people volunteer themselves to fade into the background scenery?  In the video, the third passive witness later said “I didn’t want to get into any trouble.”  The one person who was in-between on reacting said, “I was going to jump in and do something if you continued.”  I give that guy credit.  He stopped and watched, but he hesitated.  He wanted to take action, but did not know how to go about it.

 

That is the main problem facing bystanders when witnessing crimes.  “I didn’t want to get into any trouble,” sounds lame because he was not the criminal, but he may be legally penalized if he engaged in the public fight and was then accused of assault.  Other than that, people are afraid of “getting into trouble” with the bully, because they don’t want to fight.  Here is a list of potential reasons why bystanders “mind their own business.”

 

Passive Bystanders’ Reasons

      1.      They are afraid the bully will fight them.

      2.      They do not know the whole situation, so they don’t want to judge.
      3.      They have some place to go, and they do not have the time to stop. 
             (Newton’s Law:  An object in motion tends to stay in motion.)
      4.      There are more people around.  Maybe someone else will handle the situation. 
            (With more people, the responsibility is shared.)
      5.      Misunderstanding:
                a.       The reckless behavior is mutual.
                b.      The victim did something to anger the aggressor.
                c.       They are in a group project, and one member is not doing his share.
      6.      Maybe they will resolve everything on their own in a few minutes.

 

There was only one person who reacted but was hesitant.  In real life, there are more people like this.  I believe these are possible reasons for the behaviors of the on-the-fence, frozen advocates.

 

Hesitant Bystanders’ Reasons

1. I don’t want that bully to hurt me too.
2. I want to help, but I don’t know how.
3. I can’t speak.  My mouth is gaping and no words seem to come.  I’m shocked.
4. I am observing.  I do care.
5. Should I call the police?  Will they take me seriously?  What if they leave before the police arrive?
6. I want to stop the aggressor, but I don’t know how to fight; self-defense.
7. I am physically disadvantaged to the aggressor.  I’m smaller or weaker.
8. I don’t know exactly what is going on.  I want to make a proper judgment.
9. Someone you are with discourages you from helping.

How many of these apply to you?  Have you ever witnessed a crime and played the role of the hesitant or complicit bystander?  After reading this, I hope if you were complicit that you changed your attitudes toward your role as a crime witness.  If you were hesitant, or if you were complicit with a change of heart, here are some tips on being more assertive in bullying and other criminal situations.

Assertive Bystanders

1. Tell someone nearby about this.
2. Call the police or security.
3. Record the scene on your phone, and report it as evidence.
4. From a safe distance, yell at the aggressor to stop!
5. If someone discourages you, telling you to mind your own business, then tell them you are doing the right thing.
6. If the attacker approaches you, try to negotiate.  Keep your distance.
7. If the attacker tries to attack you, make a scene.  Now two people are screaming for help.  When the police arrive, it will be harder for the attacker to play innocent.

The last two are pretty gutsy.  If you are timid, stick with the first four.  Don’t do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, though that is why bystanders are mostly passive to begin with.  Helping out someone in need is a way to reconnect with a world of strangers surrounding us.  By doing something about bullying or any kind of victimization, you are bringing more peace into the environment by diffusing a something chaotic.  You could easily be victimized of a violent crime on another day.  We are equally human, not objects.

©2014 Caroline Friehs

References

FouseyTube (2013).  The Bullying Social Experiment – Please Watch.  [Courtesy of:  R.I.P. Amanda Todd – a Facebook Page.]  Runtime: 4:52.  Retrieved from:  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=790590087621312&set=vb.567254213288235&type=3&theater

 

Objectification and Violence against Women

 

http://www.upworthy.com/5-minutes-of-what-the-media-actually-does-to-women-8

 

In the above link, Jean Kilbourne gives an inspiring presentation about how women are portrayed in the media.  She covers three major points.  1.  Women’s pictures are altered to achieve an unachievable ideal.  2.  Women are objectified, sometimes literally.  3.  The media shatters that object, appreciating only parts of the woman’s body.

 

1. Women’s pictures are altered.

Before pictures are printed in magazines, professionals edit out all the natural imperfections, such as wrinkles and double chins.  They create unnatural perfections, such as increased bust size, and distorted waistlines courtesy of the Photoshop diet.  The result is a beautiful caricature, a completely abstract image of the original model.  The women in the magazines resemble some of my dolls, but is Barbie really to blame?  Look at the Victorian and Edwardian eras in terms of fashion.  The hourglass figure predated Barbie.

If you want to look like those models, you can easily do a fashion photo shoot with a friend who likes photography.  You or your friend could edit the picture just like the professionals, and voila, you have your own Vogue caricature of yourself.  The same image will not be looking at you in the mirror everyday, but you know you can achieve the “perfect” look the same way the models do; computer cosmetics!  Then those models don’t seem so intimidating.  In real life, these models are not very different from you, which is more humanizing.  Now that you have achieved the same illusion, you are free to move on.

 

2. Women are objectified.

Ms. Kilbourne makes a valid point that the first step to justifying abuse is objectifying someone.  Women in the media are portrayed as inanimate objects.  The examples in the video included scissors, beer bottles, and even a video game system.  Regarding the latter, she is a toy to play with, not even a person anymore.

There is nothing wrong with breaking an object as long as it belongs to you.  Snapping a pencil in half is not extremely immoral, but you now rendered it useless.  Running over a human being is worse than hitting the neighbor’s cat with your car.  The former gets the life sentence, while the cat-killer gets a lighter judgment, because as any sociopath would say, “It’s just an animal.”  Animals are naturally dehumanized, because they are not humans.  It does make sense, because humans are considered more important than animals. 

Since a male perpetrator believes he is more important than his female partner, hurting her could be just as wrong as a teenager mutilating a Barbie doll.  If a woman is just an object, violence against women is easier to justify.  She can be consumed and thrown away like a bottle of Michelob Ultra.  Her legs are like scissors – rock breaks scissors.  Don’t laugh.  The rock thrown at the woman could be literal.  Women are smaller, and sometimes more fragile.  Snapping her in half, like a pencil, would only empower the male adversary, because he thinks, “She’s an object, and I am above her.”  Not giving him what he wants renders her useless like a broken pencil, and he thinks by breaking her validates that idea.  Might does not make right.  Might means you don’t listen, and that you have no room for personal growth.  Being a brute means you are unwilling to learn anything. 

As Ms. Kilbourne said, these pictures do not directly lead to violence.  A man does not look at these pictures and decide to beat his wife or girlfriend.  These images over time affect our culture and how we see women.  How often are men turned into objects in magazine pictures?  I would be open to hearing a yes.  I would like to hear some examples.  I do not doubt that these pictures are art.  They require imagination and took a lot of time and effort.  What we really need is to stop and think about the way we treat others.  We don’t literally think that a woman is a Budweiser bottle, but do we treat her like one?

 

3. Parts of the woman are emphasized.

In the media, whether it’s in magazines or movies, fractions of the woman receive more attention than the whole.  Now that the woman has been objectified, she can be shattered like a glass figurine.  Breasts, butts, groins, and legs are the favorites of the populace.  The rest of the person is forgotten.  The media limits beauty to these body parts.  Everyone seems to rejoice over how beautiful the female body is, but then they only talk about boobs, or some other favored fraction.  I can not count how many times I’ve heard boobs being referred to as “they.”  “They are beautiful.  They are great.”  Who is “they?”  I thought “they” referred to more than one person, not more than one body part on one person.  It is dissociating to refer to pectoral muscles as individuals while ignoring the whole person.  It is humanizing the human parts while dehumanizing the human being.

 

There are memes that say, “What is the useless skin outside of the vagina?  The woman!”  I understand this is only a joke, but are we really that useless?  Are we as useless as broken pencils?  If you agree, please go buy a “My Size Barbie” doll.  Don’t worry, she doesn’t even talk.  She would be perfect for you.  Oh, am I making fun of you?  That was just a joke!

It is ironic how heterosexual men bash gay people, but these same men don’t like women as a whole.  Men like that might as well just buy a rubber vagina sex toy.  They could save money to buy silicone implants to squeeze like stress balls.

So much focus is on the woman’s shell, while her personality, thoughts, beliefs, words, intellect, imagination, ambitions are seldom given a blurb of credit.  Males involved in domestic violence probably value her appearance over her personality.  He thinks he loves her appearance, but then he physically attacks it, which makes no sense.  Notice whenever battered wives are pictured; there are usually no injuries to her breasts or butt?  Take a moment and imagine the injuries of a battered wife or girlfriend.  I imagine black eyes, broken arms, a swollen lip, a bandage over her head, and genitalia injuries due to rape.  It seems the face is no longer considered the capital of human beauty.  Eyes were once windows to the soul.  Though, this man does not want to see her soul, just her boobs.  He would probably leave the breasts alone since they are so important to him.  Ha!  I just said, they!

My theory on why breasts are so important to men starts from his birth.  He suckled on his mother’s bosom, and he became orally fixated, in Freud’s Oral Stage.  Women also seem to be obsessed with breasts as well, but since they already have their own, the need is fulfilled.  The obsession with larger breasts is not just evolutionary.  From a baby’s perspective, his mother’s breasts are gigantic compared to his head.  In his adult age, he wants to recreate the proportions.

Understanding why men obsess over body parts instead of the whole woman could help us understand why the criminal ones commit crimes against women.  I do not hate men; I just hate rapists and criminals.  They can be either gender.

© 2014 Caroline Friehs

 

References:

Kilbourne, J (2013).  Killing US Softly 4.  Advertising’s Image of Women.  [Upworthy video]  Courtesy of Brandon Weber.  Retrieved from:  http://www.upworthy.com/5-minutes-of-what-the-media-actually-does-to-women-8

 

Picture meme courtesy of:  Quickmeme.com