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Contrary to the long-standing assumption that emergency bystanders are apathetic and non-involved, accumulating evidence shows that bystander intervention is the norm in violently dangerous public conflicts. However, it is currently uncertain to what extent this result generalizes to everyday public disputes with a low level of danger. Here, we address this gap by analyzing bystander reactions to incidents where bus passengers with invalid tickets dispute being fined by a ticket inspector. Data were videos clips of incidents recorded by the inspectors’ occupational body-worn cameras. Our preliminary results showed that in around half of the incidents, a bystander intervened in the inspector-passenger conflict. The intervention behaviors were mainly verbal in nature, with only one in five having a physical aspect. Although the current intervention rate is lower than previously reported in high-danger contexts, our results add to the understanding that bystanders often play an active role in shaping public conflicts. We discuss implications for theory of bystander behavior in rule enforcement situations and advocate that scholars use video observational methods to examine bystanders across real-life conflicts with varying danger levels.

Studies documenting high frequencies of bystander intervention in real-life violence focused on violence in night-life related contexts. This paper addresses bystander actions in a yet unexplored context of violence, namely armed shop robberies. We expect high frequencies of bystander intervention, particularly of men and of people who know the victims. We observed bystander actions drawing on surveillance camera footage of 100 armed robberies in the Netherlands, and data were analyzed using a logistic regression model. Data show that bystanders intervene in less than ten percent of the robberies. Men more often than women take an active role in trying to stop the offender. Women more often than men, and people known to the victims more often than strangers seek affiliative contact with the victims. Our results highlight the importance of understanding bystander actions within the specific context of violent situation, and of considering variation in the type of intervention actions when evaluating helping behavior.