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ChiTrib domestic violence probe, in brief

By Mark Obbie

When I saw the words "lengthy article" used by the ABA Journal to describe a Chicago Tribune story, and then saw the story itself emblazoned with the telltale term "Tribune Investigation" and touting a "Tribune analysis" of court records, I braced myself. Newspaper tradition (very much including the Trib) means that this will be a monster story, perhaps spanning a week of monster stories. And, even if that's a prescription for a tiny readership, the subject certainly deserves probing treatment: low conviction rates in domestic violence cases.But this story, by Liam Ford, shows that probing doesn't demand tens of thousands of words. The story (even with a sidebar) weighs in at fewer than 1,200 words. It's a solid, interesting 1,200 words -- with a page of links to past stories (though not evidently a series) -- but the brevity is remarkable. So is the in-your-face headline, "Courts are failing battered women," which sounds more like the traditional accompanying editorial that is carefully kept at a distance from the reporting. Even though some of these touches cause me to lose my bearings, and even though I can think of many ways to examine the issue more closely and colorfully, I admire this example of accountability journalism. It does what journalism should do to evaluate the poor record of a system designed to improve women's chances of putting their abusers in jail.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on October 11, 2008 (boomark / email).