Aviva Shen

Journalist

about me

I am a Portland-based editor with special expertise in legal and criminal justice coverage. I am currently the Deputy Editor at the nonprofit newsroom Type Investigations. I previously worked as a senior editor overseeing Slate's Jurisprudence section and as a founding senior editor of The Appeal. I have more than a decade of reporting, editing and newsroom management experience. My work has been nominated for an ASME Award and honored by organizations including the Online News Association and Investigative Reporters and Editors.

features

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Slate • 21st March 2020

How to Prevent a Coronavirus Catastrophe in Jails: Let People Out

‘Judge, look, I know that if you let this person out, he really might steal somebody else’s car, but stealing a car is not worth a death sentence from dying in prison due to COVID or increasing the risk of exposure to other people.’

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Slate • 11th March 2020

What 8,000 Prisoners Think About American Politics

A first-of-its-kind political survey inside prisons.

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The Atlantic • 20th November 2017

What Happens When a School Stops Arresting Kids for Throwing Skittles

There’s been a fight at Marrero Middle School. Two sixth graders traded insults during football practice, someone threw a punch, and soon enough they were on the ground with a ring of students egging them on. A few years ago, a fight like this might have ended with someone being suspended, or even arrested. But over the past year and a half, the New Orleans-area middle school has rebuilt its entire approach to discipline.

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The Guardian • 1st May 2017

Prosecuted by her legal counterpart: 'It destroyed my life in so many ways'

As a public defenders’ investigator, Taryn Blume was shocked to find that she was facing criminal charges – charges initiated by her adversary in the DA’s office. In New Orleans, it’s become a disturbing pattern

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CityLab • 7th October 2017

The Case for the Flood-Proof Lawn

New Orleans’ water infrastructure needs a lot of work. In the meantime, some residents are taking a new street-level approach to dealing with a deluge.

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The Trace • 10th April 2017

When the Driver Who Just Cut You Off Also Has a Gun

Road rage incidents involving firearms have more than doubled since 2014, our analysis shows.

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The Guardian • 29th October 2016

Angola prison rodeo offers risks and rewards for Louisiana's hard-knock lifers

Four men wearing black-and-white stripes take their seats at a table. They have only a split second to brace themselves before a bull charges through...

work

A sample of recent articles

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Slate • 25th August 2020

Joe Biden Has No Real Plan To Deal With Policing

After months of protests organized around the refrain “defund the police,” Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden offered up a different slogan. “Most cops are good,” the former vice president proclaimed at the Democratic National Convention last week, “but the fact is the bad ones have to be identified and prosecuted and out, period.”

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Slate • 29th May 2020

Protesters Called Minneapolis Officials’ Bluff On “Investigating” George Floyd’s Killer

Too often, the promise of investigation—particularly in cases like this, where video exists and eyewitnesses are plentiful—serves mostly to buy time until public outrage quiets down. Minneapolis protesters showed they’re not falling for that anymore.

CityLab • 19th February 2018

Video Surveillance, Coming to a Bar Near You

“We have to have the ability to demonstrate to would-be criminals, to would-be terrorists, if you will, that in public spaces we’re going to find them and know who you are,” said NOPD Chief Michael Harrison.

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The Appeal • 21st February 2018

Louisiana Denies Parole to Man Behind a Supreme Court Ruling Limiting Life Sentences for Children

By all accounts, 71-year-old Henry Montgomery is not the same man he was when he was 17.

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The Atlantic • 19th October 2017

New Orleans' Great Bail Reform Experiment

The most incarcerated city in the most incarcerated state is experimenting with programs to reduce its jail population.

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The Appeal • 23rd January 2018

Jury For White Man Who Killed Black NFL Player Has One Black Person

The Louisiana jury that will decide whether a white man shot a black former NFL player in self-defense during a road rage incident has just one black juror.

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The Appeal • 19th December 2017

New Ruling May Force Louisiana To Stop Using Poor People To Bankroll Its Courts

A groundbreaking new ruling may force a reckoning over the way the most incarcerated state in the world pays for its criminal justice system.

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The Guardian • 14th December 2016

Bail money funds Louisiana courts. Now this powerful industry is fighting reform

An industry built around a key feature of the American criminal justice system is ratcheting up its resistance to change.

The Trace • 4th February 2017

What We Know (and Don’t Know) About Immigrants and Violent Crime

Trump demanded reports on immigrants and crime. Existing research shows that they are not nearly the threat the president has made them out to be.

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