In 1964, the gruesome sexual assault and murder of 28-year old Kitty Genovese was committed right outside her apartment building in a suburb of NYC. What made this crime even more horrific was that the attack lasted over a half hour (with the assailant coming back three times to stab the
victim) AND that it was witnessed by 37 of her neighbors who shut their eyes and ears and did nothing to intervene—not even calling the police. The slaying of Kitty Genovese has become a metaphor for what is known as the Bystander Effect—the tendency of observers of a crime to remain uninvolved. This week
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