Sonja Sharp
Sonja Sharp is a New York City crime reporter and an instructor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, VICE, and the New York Observer.
What America Learned About Sexual Assault in 2016
The same country that elected a man accused by many women of sexual assault seemed to cross a critical threshold in discussing it.
When Pets Keep People Leashed to Their Abusers
Research shows pets are a key weapon of control for domestic abusers, and a growing network of shelters welcome not just victims but their beloved animals, too.
The Story Behind the Teen Mom Arrested with a Dead Baby in Her Bag
When she was 17, Tiona Rodriguez was arrested for allegedly shoplifting at Victoria's Secret, and cops quickly discovered her third child's corpse in her bag. Now she's facing life in prison in a case that may rest on shaky science.
How a Paternity Fight Led to a Mass Shooting in a Trailer Park
Many mass shootings are intimate executions carried out by men who target the women and children closest to them. This is how one of them rocked a community.
How the Women Who Visit Rikers Island Navigate the Complex Dress Code
Women looking to visit loved ones in the hellish NYC jail must submit to humiliating searches and allegedly inconsistent rules about what they can and cannot wear.
How Campus Rape Became a National Scandal
Despite the recent outcry, experts believe rape has been commonplace at American universities for decades. So why are we just talking about it now?
Why Does the NYPD Think Dance Teams Are Street Gangs?
New York City cops are lumping dance crews together with actual street gangs, and experts say this assumption is dangerously misguided.
In Defense of Fur
I love fur. I'm a vegetarian who loves fur so much I once traded my California State disabled person's parking placard for a midcentury fox stole with glass eyes and its original claws.
Why Is it Legal for Rich Foreigners to Come to America for Organ Transplants?
Foreign nationals jetting to the United States solely to shell out cash for organ transplants is a growing problem, according to some advocates active in the donor transplant game.
An Interactive Map of All the NYC Streets Named After 9/11 Victims
Names of victims haunt New York City's urban landscape in quasi-official limbo, on the city's records but not its maps: not quite forgotten but not really remembered either.
No One Cares About the 50th Anniversary of the World's Fair - It's Dead and Resurrecting It Is Nothing Short of Necrophilia
Today, April 22, marks the 50th Anniversary of the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. While the New York Times and the New York Daily News worked themselves into paroxysms of nostalgia over its golden anniversary, and no one gives a fuck.
How Airbnb Makes Tax Day So Much Worse
Freelancers’ finances are trying in the best of times, but recently the cash-strapped artists turned novice hoteliers, who rent their spare rooms or even couches to travelers on Airbnb, are experiencing another obstacle.