In the coming weeks, SMSU junior Jamie Flynn, along with a few other students, will be testing the “bystander effect” as an experiment for their Victimology course. The “bystander effect” refers to an emergency situation in which a bystander does not help a victim.

According to Elliot Aronson, Timothy Wilson, and Robin Akert, authors of the textbook “Social Psychology,” when the number of bystanders increases, it is less likely that the victim will receive help in a given situation.

Flynn’s experiment will be one of many conducted as a required project for the class. Through results found in a pre-experiment survey, Flynn believes the outcome of people helping the victim will be about 50 percent. To her knowledge, SMSU has never done anything like this before.

“We mostly just wanted students and staff to have a heads up that we are doing [the experiment],” Flynn said. “One of our tests is to have a group member trip [another] in the hallway, and we wanted to make sure we let people know what’s going on so no one gets into trouble.”

Other groups in the class, consisting of five or six students, are inviting speakers who were once victims or hosting movie nights showing films that relate to being a victim.

According to the SMSU course catalog, “[Victimology] provides students with the knowledge of the role of victims in crimes, their treatment by the criminal justice system, and victim assistance.” Victimology is offered as an elective for Justice Administration majors, but has no prerequisite and is open to take for anyone who is interested.

“I would recommend taking this class because it gives you an inside look at what victims go through and how the justice system plays a part in the process,” Flynn said.