Last last year, as many as 10 young men gang-raped a 15-year-old girl, while another 10 people watched, in Richmond, California.  As horrible as the attack was, with many questions that swarm regarding one's ability to witness such a gruesome attack without intervening or calling for help, we already have a name for this phenomenon: the bystander effect.  The term was coined to make sense of how 38 people witnessed, by hearing and/or seeing, the violent rape and murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964.  And, subsequent research has found that the diffusion of responsibility, or the pressure one perceives to intervene, increases as the number of people present increases.

Unlike other countries, like some in Europe, many of the US's Good Samaritan laws are focused on protecting individuals who help in emergency situations from criminal and financial liability, yet, there is little about holding responsible those who fail to intervene in such situations.  (Think back to the 1997...