Investigations
October 29, 2021

Human Trafficking Sting Nets No Human Trafficking Charges
By Roxanna Asgarian

A Florida sheriff boasted of 125 arrests as part of a massive anti-human trafficking operation. But none of the charges were for human trafficking—nearly all were for misdemeanor solicitation.

More in Archive

The Fashionable Police Strategy That Is Just Mass Incarceration By Another Name

November 2, 2022 Commentary
This story was published in partnership with Slate. Police departments, politicians, academics, and policymakers are again embracing focused deterrence, a...

Continue reading

By Philip V. McHarris

Biden’s Focus on Marijuana Is Part of the Problem

October 21, 2022 Commentary
This story was published in partnership with Slate. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden released a three-prong plan to fulfill a...

Continue reading

By John Pfaff

The Quiet Political Rise of David Sacks, Silicon Valley’s Prophet of Urban Doom

October 20, 2022 Features
Like his pals Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, Sacks is using his wealth and online clout to unite conservatives and former leftists in a reactionary movement against liberalism.
By Jacob Silverman

The NYPD Brutalized Protesters in 2020. Will It Face a Reckoning?

October 8, 2022 Features
This story was produced in partnership with New York Magazine. On June 4, 2020, hundreds of protesters marched through the Mott...

Continue reading

By Ali Winston

Police Are Bragging About Big Fentanyl Busts, Repeating the Drug War’s Dark History

September 20, 2022 Latest
Politicians and lawmakers are equating large-scale fentanyl seizures with progress in combating the drug’s epidemic, forgetting the lessons from the age of crack.
By Zachary Siegel

Why Even Progressive Prosecutors Won’t Be Able to Keep Women Who Have Abortions Out of Jail

July 13, 2022 Commentary
This article was published in partnership with Slate. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v....

Continue reading

By John Pfaff

How States Will Target Pregnant People Now that Roe Has Fallen

June 24, 2022 Latest
After the Dobbs decision, every pregnancy is a potential crime scene.
By Roxanna Asgarian

What the San Francisco DA Recall Really Tells Us. And What it Doesn’t.

June 9, 2022 Commentary
The city's demographics mattered, as did Chesa Boudin's outsider status. But the politics of punishment are still too complicated to draw a neat conclusion.
By John Pfaff

School Police Don’t Stop Shootings. So What Are They For?

June 7, 2022 Latest
This story was published in partnership with Slate. Each day following the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left...

Continue reading

By Roxanna Asgarian

‘We don’t know how many women are out there like that’

May 16, 2022 Features
Anna Borkowski accused three men of rape. Why did prosecutors stop her?
By Roxanna Asgarian

Hochul’s Regressive Bail Rollbacks Untethered From Evidence

April 11, 2022 Commentary
The bail reform debate turns on data from data from New York State’s Office of Court Administration. But that data cannot answer the question of whether reform works.
By John Pfaff