Welcome to the website of Stephen Handelman. This site will help Stephen discuss various topics that match his interests and career. Be sure to visit the site often as upcoming blog posts cover everything from investigative journalists’ critical role in society to the lessons Stephen Handelman learned while serving in the Peace Corps. Before diving into the blog, learn more about Stephen Handelman below:
Get to Know Stephen Handelman
Stephen Handelman is a prize-winning former columnist, foreign correspondent, and senior writer/columnist for TIME magazine and The Toronto Star.
He is the author of several books: Comrade Criminal: Russia’s New Mafiya, the first account of the rise of organized crime in post-Soviet Russia.
A follow-up book, Biohazard, written with former Soviet bioweapons chief Ken Alibek, unraveled the Soviet bio-weapons program.
He co-edited an anthology of writing on the 2008 economic crash: Meltdown: How They Got Away With It, published by Columbia University Press.
His first book, Uncommon Kingdom, published by HarperCollins in 1988, explored how Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher transformed Great Britain in the 1980s.
Stephen Handelman has been a frequent commentator and lecturer on criminal justice issues, transnational crime, and organized crime. His work has been published widely in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Foreign Affairs Journal; The Spectator (UK), and many other outlets. He has trained investigative journalists in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Latin America. He has led over 100 training programs in criminal justice reporting for journalists and students across the U.S. and coordinated the nation’s only prize for criminal justice reporting: The Harry Frank Guggenheim Awards for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting
Steve Handelman earned his Masters in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University. He is a member of the board of communications alumni of the City College of New York, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the former editor of Americas Quarterly, former director of the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay College, and founder and former editor-in-chief of The Crime Report, a nationwide site covering resources, news, and research in criminal justice. He served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala and as a VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteer in New Mexico.
More of What You Can Expect From the Website of Steve Handelman
As readers can gather from the career of Steve Handelman, he is a strong advocate for the importance of criminal justice reporting. This website will not only allow Steve Handelman to share opinions on some of his interests and the news of the day but also as a resource for people considering journalism as a career path.
Investigative journalists are often mislabeled as “gotcha journalists,” but the truth is that professional investigative journalists are only interested in exposing the truth. They work to give the public information that shows no one person or business entity is above the law. Journalism is a methodology that can hold people and institutions accountable in a way that political systems often cannot.
Sensationalism is increasingly bleeding into the investigative journalism world. In an era where clicks are king, it can be tempting for up-and-coming journalists to report on salacious gossip about the lives of celebrities instead of working to reveal information in the best interest of the public. What attracts many to investigative journalism is an opportunity to stick up for the proverbial little guy. The most famous example of investigative journalism came during the Watergate scandal. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s work was not motivated by selling newspapers, but rather by the goal of providing information that would help check the abuse of power in the White House. Those interested in the truth and reading the work of some of the county’s top investigative crime and justice journalists are encouraged to visit: https://thecrimereport.org/
Stephen Handelman was a co-founder of The Crime Report, the nation’s first online justice news and resource service, and served as executive editor from 2006 to 2022. The site has grown into a platform for the work of justice journalists from across America, including from often-neglected smaller and midsize outlets as well as the mainstream press, as well as a place where leaders of the justice community, advocates, scholars, and members of the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated population, offer their takes on emerging issues of criminal justice.