Bystander Intervention

Bystander Intervention
Instructor
Date
Bystander intervention is a strategy/theory that focuses on preventing negative events in the society such as intimate partner violence, sexual assault, drug abuse or bullying. In this case, this theory will be applied to analyze the behavior of those exhibited in the given video titled Session. Later this theory will be applied to describe a scenario in which a bystander could have influenced this scenario in a different way.
The purpose of bystander intervention theory is to educate or equip the bystanders with ways on how they can prevent negative events such as sexual assault. In this case, Chan is the bystander because she doesn’t seem concerned with what happens to her friend where she allows Talia to drink alcohol and to be taken to the host’s bedroom where she can be assaulted. With bystander intervention theory one should have applied primary prevention to this high-risk event (McMahon and Banyard 2012). With primary prevention, one has the ability to intervene in this situation where Talia was consuming alcohol. One would have informed her about the issue of addiction or the issue of illness that arises with consumption of alcohol and by doing so Talia would have remained sober. Also with primary prevention one would have controlled the situation where Talia is being dragged to a bedroom where she can be easily raped since she is intoxicated. For instance, one would have opted to take her home and by doing so there wouldn’t have been any chances of her being sexually assaulted.

In this scenario, Chan is the bystander because she witnessed and didn’t take any action to prevent her friend Talia from consuming alcohol and from being taken to the host’s bedroom. In this case, it is clear that Chan was sober thus she had the ability to make a right decision. Since Talia and Chan went to the party together Chan could have been close to her friend and she could have taken the initiative to prevent Talia from consuming alcohol. Also, she could have intervened in the situation to prevent Talia from being taken to the bedroom because there were chances of her being raped. Therefore if Chan would have applied the bystander intervention theory the events that happened, in this case, wouldn’t have taken place.
Reference
McMahon, S., & Banyard, V. L. (2012). When can I help? A conceptual framework for the prevention of sexual violence through bystander intervention. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 13(1), 3-14.