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Malia Politzer is the executive editor of piqd.com, and an award-winning long-form journalist based out of Spain. She specializes in reporting on migration, international development, human rights issues and investigative reporting.
Originally from California, she's lived in China, Spain, Mexico and India, and reported from various countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Her primary beats relate to immigration, economics and international development. She has published articles in Huffington Post Highline, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue India, Mint, Far Eastern Economic Review, Foreign Policy, Reason Magazine, and the Phoenix New Times. She is also a regular contributor to Devex.
Her Huffington Post Highline series, "The 21st Century Gold Rush" won awards from the National Association of Magazine Editors, Overseas Press Club, and American Society of Newspaper Editors. She's also won multiple awards for feature writing in India and the United States.
Her reporting has been supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, The Institute For Current World Affairs, and the Global Migration Grant.
Degrees include a BA from Hampshire College and MS from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where was a Stabile Fellow at the Center for Investigative Journalism.
Unfounded: Why Canadian Police Dismiss 1 In 5 Sexual Assault Claims As "Baseless"
The Canadian National Newspaper Awards took place earlier this week. The winner for the category for investigative journalism was a series of articles published in The Globe and Mail, filed under the title "Unfounded".
The series, accompanied by haunting multimedia, details how the police mishandle sexual assault allegations, and found that police categorized more than one-fifth of claims as baseless, or "unfounded". To put that into perspective: Police are twice as likely declare sexual assault claims as "unfounded"—meaning the officer does not believe a crime occurred—than other kinds of assault charges.
However, when reporters investigated these "unfounded" claims—an investigation that lasted for 20 months, based on data gathered from more than 870 police forces across the country—they found deep and systemic flaws at each and every step of the process.
Among them: inadequate training for police; dated interviewing techniques that do not take into account the effect that trauma can have on memory; and the persistence of rape myths among law-enforcement officials. They also found that law enforcement routinely skipped basic investigative steps—such as taking photos of the crime scene, looking for witnesses, reviewing email, social media and phone records, or collecting video surveillance. Often, police seemed to be classifying the case based on whether or not they believed there was enough evidence for a conviction—rather than focusing on gathering evidence to see whether a crime was committed.
“[Some police] are jumping the gun. They’re acting as the judge,” said an attorney interviewed by the reporters.
Accompanying the rigorously reported articles were videos and graphics that build a damning case against the police: For example, in one video, a trauma expert analyzed the recorded footage of an officer interviewing a victim (the entire video interview with the victims is also included, with her consent).
In the era of #MeToo, it's a series well worth reading.
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