HONOR 4815 - The Bystander: The Crime of Complicity

If you are a bystander and witness a crime, should intervention to prevent that crime be a legal obligation? Or is moral responsibility enough? The course examines the bystander-victim relationship from multiple perspectives, focusing on the Holocaust and then exploring cases in contemporary society. Drawing on a wide range of historical material and interviews, the course examines the bystander during three distinct events: death marches, the German occupation of Holland, and the German occupation of Hungary. While the Third Reich created policy, its implementation was dependent on bystander non-intervention. Bringing the issue into current perspective, the course explores sexual assault cases at Vanderbilt and Stanford Universities, as well as other crimes where bystanders chose whether or not to act, and the resulting consequences. The course examines whether a society cannot rely on morals and compassion alone in determining our obligation to help another in danger and whether t we must make the obligation to intervene the law, and thus non-intervention a crime.