The need to “put a face” on a humanitarian crisis and give it individual particularity is premised on a well-established phenomenon: As the numbers of a group experiencing suffering increases, the level of compassion felt for that group typically decreases. However, the mechanism behind this apparently counterintuitive dynamic — declining compassion as the level of suffering increases — has long resisted understanding.

Note: A 2011 report on this topic has been issued that updates the findings below.

Because sex crimes tend to be under-reported, the full extent of the problem in the United States is not always apparent. The National Violence Against Women Survey found that, on average, 17.6% of women and 3% of men in the United States will be raped in their lifetimes.

Policy decisions concerning education programming and early interventions are increasingly driven by documented results from long-term academic studies. The Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS) has now tracked the education and post-education experiences of 1,539 families, most of which participated in the Child-Parent Center (CPC) Education Program (the second-oldest federally funded preschool program, behind Head Start).

Every year, traffic accidents kill more than a million people and injure close to 50 million around the world. As tragic and needless as these deaths are, they’re expected to increase over time: By 2020, traffic crashes will be third in the world ranking of burden of disease, as measured in disability-adjusted life years.

Studies have shown that young people growing up in poorer neighborhoods experience multiple forms of deprivation, including resource-poor schools, elevated levels of crime and violence, and restricted labor markets. In 1994 a federal program called “Moving to Opportunity” (MTO) used vouchers to help a group of randomly assigned families move from “highly distressed” public housing projects to neighborhoods with less poverty.