Mark Obbie's Blog, page 11
December 29, 2014
When certain victims count for more
At Slate, Laura Smith describes in detail the architectural process to replace Sandy Hook Elementary School with a new school, one that reflects “a physical manifestation of a town’s response to tragedy.” It reflects something else as well: how selective our sense of compassion is to victims of violent crime. Besides its $50 million price tag … Continue reading When certain victims count for more →
December 23, 2014
On the nightstand: Tuesday, 12/23/14
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: In a two-part series that updates previous investigative work on crimes against boys killed at a Florida juvenile prison, Ben Montgomery focuses on the heroic work of an anthropologist dedicated […]
December 19, 2014
On the nightstand: Friday, 12/19/14
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: John Gibler’s reporting from the scene of a suspected massacre of Mexican college students yields a detailed account of what happened the night of their disappearance in Iguana. The answers, […]
December 18, 2014
What Serial hath wrought
As a committed contrarian, I convinced myself weeks ago that I had ample reason to hate Serial, Sarah Koenig’s wildly popular podcast about a high school student’s murder and her ex-boyfriend’s questionable conviction. Let me cite a few of the big ones: The over-the-top fawning over this story, as if it were the Most Amazing […]
December 17, 2014
On the nightstand: Wednesday, 12/17/14
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Andrea K. McDaniels’ series on victims of violence focuses this installment on school children, those whose bad behavior often stems from exposure to chronic trauma. Future installments this Thursday and […]
New push to serve crime’s most vulnerable victims
Why is there nothing like MADD — a special-interest advocacy group for a single type of crime victim — targeting our most-victimized group of all: young black men? That’s the question posed in a new report by the Vera Institute of Justice’s affiliate Common Justice, an experiment in violence intervention and victim services. The report by Common […]
December 13, 2014
A most common anomaly
In his Sunday column in tomorrow’s New York Times, Nick Kristof tells the story of Ian Manuel and Debbie Baigrie. At age 13, Manuel shot Baigrie in the face in a botched robbery. Now 37, he has been in prison 24 years and has another 13 to go — which marks a reduction from his original […]
On the nightstand: Saturday, 12/13/14
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Elon Green’s “The Untold Story of the Doodler Murders” documents an unsolved serial killing spree that never got much attention, perhaps because the victims were gay men in the mid-1970s. While […]
December 10, 2014
On the nightstand: Wednesday, 12/10/14
Recent good reads in criminal-justice journalism, with an emphasis on longform narrative stories and original reporting about crime, crime victims, and reforms in sentencing and prisons: Emily Yoffe, in a long narrative based on court records and interviews, documents a case of a university’s unfair treatment of a male student accused of sexual assault — part of […]
December 8, 2014
A courthouse encounter
Near the end of his remarkable and readable memoir, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, the criminal-justice advocate Bryan Stevenson tells a story that illustrates why he considers caring for prisoners and the condemned as compatible with caring for their victims. In one of many anecdotes about his legal advocacy, much of which concerns […]
