Mark Obbie's Blog, page 41

Improvised families lose their men

Hanna Rosin’s crime narrative “Advertisement for Murder” in the September Atlantic proceeds fairly routinely, if engagingly, for thousands of words — until, near the end, it takes a surprising and poignant turn. It’s as though the standard structure of lede … Continue reading →

“I’m not just my crime”

I received a letter today from Tim Ginocchetti, the prison inmate whose story I tell in God’s Nobodies, my true-crime Kindle Single. Starting more than five months ago, I tried to send Tim printouts of blog posts I wrote that … Continue reading →

Saylor Martine’s gift to us

Twelve weeks ago this Thursday, Slate’s Justin Peters, prolific writer of its Crime blog, posted about the death of 15-year-old Saylor Martine. The Oklahoma girl died from a gunshot wound to the head, which she suffered while she and her … Continue reading →

Horror stories, with a side of public service

A newly published investigative report by the Sun Sentinel, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is that two-headed media beast we know well: the one that performs a laudable public service, but does so with hype and fear-mongering at full throttle. My … Continue reading →

“You have to read this”

One of the most promising new forums for long-form narrative journalism is The Big Roundtable, which offers a creative solution to the problem writers face when an editor and publishing house spurn their work simply … because. TBR’s approach is … Continue reading →

True crime for history nerds

I’ve never spent much time pondering why my two top reading passions are true crime and history. But this review by David S. Reynolds of Brenda Wineapple’s Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877 brought the pairing into focus. Explaining the linkage … Continue reading →

Big day’s news fails the test

On a big news day in criminal-justice policy land, I wondered how the newspaper of record would ask and answer the central question in both stories: What evidence exists to show the effects of disputed law enforcement tactics on crime? … Continue reading →

Terror (still) on US 59

My Twitter feed runneth over lately with raves about Sarah Stillman’s feature in The New Yorker, on civil forfeiture abuses. As Stillman points out, law enforcement authorities for decades have used and occasionally abused their power to seize cash, vehicles, … Continue reading →

Beware “the rush to normal”

An op-ed in today’s New York Times serves as an apt postscript to my recent Pacific Standard story on post-traumatic growth (which I blogged about here and here). Psychiatrist Mark Epstein, author of the forthcoming book The Trauma of Everyday … Continue reading →

Victim funds and fairness

Jim Oliphant’s latest story in National Journal (with accompanying video on the backstory) makes an important contribution to the public conversation about compensating victims of crime, particularly victims of mass tragedies and terrorism. He focuses on a character whose role has … Continue reading →