What I Do #3: Aaron Jacklin
The author of this newsletter tells us about what he does.
I'm Aaron Jacklin, and this is Explaining Crime, an independent newsletter that helps you explain crime to your audience.
What I Do is a weekly Explaining Crime series that features a single person in the crime content space and their answers to a set series of questions about what they do.
I define the “crime content space” fairly broadly, including crime news, narrative nonfiction, investigative journalism, academia, advocacy, and, of course, true crime. Accordingly, I plan to feature a wide variety of people, including academics, crime reporters, podcasters, authors, advocates, YouTubers, and more.
The idea is to share and spread ideas about the different ways people are doing this kind of work and tips for how to do it.
This week, I’m answering the questions. Have any suggestions for who else you’d like to answer these questions for you? Let me know, and I’ll see if I can get them!
What I Do: Aaron Jacklin
Location: Guelph, Ontario
What do you do?
I write and publish Explaining Crime, the newsletter that helps you explain crime to your audience. I also cover crime-related research for Understanding Crime, a Medium publication I own. Finally, I’m working on a book that will be a guide to understanding crime statistics for writers.
Who is your audience?
My audience is still small, but it’s made up of academics (mostly criminologists), victim advocates, podcasters, and other people with an interest in crime.
What are the most useful tools in your work?
I really don’t want to sound like a shill for Google, but, at the moment, Google Docs and Sheets and my Chromebook are what I use for 80 per cent of my work. Probably more. And Notion, which I’m a newcomer to but am finding invaluable for organization.
Who or what are the most useful sources of information in your work?
Despite having a master’s degree in criminology, I’ll be the first to say I’m not an expert in crime, so my most important sources of information when it comes to the subject matter are academic journals and the people actually doing the work of explaining crime, which is to say the people you’ll find in What I Do and interviewed for other stories that will be published in this newsletter.
Books are a treasure trove of information, whether style guides, how-to manuals, popular science, big idea, or reference.
I also study newspapers, magazines, blogs, and podcasts for examples of explaining crime, both to emulate and avoid.
Finally, the dry documentation that governments provide with their crime data is a huge help for the book I’m working on.
What’s your process?
I’ll focus on my process for Your First Five because I publish that the most.
For that, I have 30 criminology or criminal justice academic journals that I monitor closely. The first 20 are top journals in the field, according to Google Scholar. The last 10 are ones devoted to topics that I want to keep an eye on, such as Homicide Studies and Violence Against Women.
I visit each journal several times a week to compile a running list of new, online-first journal articles in a spreadsheet. Then, for each weekday, I make a list of the five most interesting or noteworthy studies to publish as Your First Five in this newsletter. I use Substack’s scheduling feature to send each out at 7 a.m., E.S.T.
While I’m doing that, I also keep an eye out for studies I’d like to cover in more depth in Understanding Crime, my Medium publication devoted to covering criminology and criminal justice research. I haven’t found my stride for balancing the newsletter and publication yet, but I’m getting there.
How do you distribute or otherwise share your work?
Medium and Substack both have fairly robust distribution systems, but I also share on LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, and, X. (Not as regularly as I’d like…)
What’s something you wish people understood about crime, justice, or another related topic?
I wish that people understood that there are better alternatives to understanding crime than tradition, common sense, and ideology. We’re still in the early stages of understanding crime and its causes from a scientific standpoint, but there’s quality research coming out every day that would make a better basis for policy than what we’re getting.
Why do you do this work?
Like with everything, there are a few layers to that. I’ll mention two.
First, as a teenager, I saw the suffering that crime causes victims and their families. I sought a way to alleviate that suffering on a large scale. There are direct ways, and lots of wonderful people (everyone from first responders to victim services to mental health professionals and beyond) are engaged in that work. But I wanted to find root causes of crime and work on those. I think the way we do that is through scientifically supported programs, policies, laws, and institutions that change how our communities, companies, cities, and countries work. I believe that covering criminology and related disciplines as a journalist is a way to provide the information to people that they need to govern their lives and make the informed decisions that will bring about those changes.
Second, I’m a straight white man and that comes with a tremendous amount of unearned advantage. Don’t get me wrong, I worked hard for my education, skills, and place in life, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Being straight and white and male meant, among other things, that I didn’t have to deal with inequities that make everything harder for so many others. These advantages give me a larger voice than I would otherwise have. It’s not right, but it’s the equation I was born into. If I’m not somehow using that voice to do work that I believe changes that equation, I have trouble sleeping at night. I believe “changing that equation” necessarily means bringing about those changes I mentioned above.
I’ve had the good fortune of being in some communities and workplaces that have encouraged me to think about this privilege a great deal, but I don’t think I’ve ever tried to articulate it before. I’m grateful to those whose thinking and guidance has helped me understand these things better than I did.
What was your path to doing this?
I did an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice & Public Policy, before doing journalism for a while. Then I did an M.A. in Criminology & Criminal Justice Policy. I also got sidetracked for a long time with a head injury. During that time, I worked in senior leadership at a small, independent, nonprofit, campus newspaper. I’ve written about my path more here and here.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out who wants to do what you do?
The best advice I ever read is some I didn’t take until very recently: don’t wait until you’re 100% ready, don’t wait until you get “permission”, just start. Get ready as you go. It might sound contradictory, but I also highly recommend education, both formal and self-directed. As long as you keep forward momentum toward doing this stuff, education is invaluable.
What book, podcast, documentary, or anything else would you recommend to people reading this?
Oh, boy. There are so many, but I’ll stick to books and podcasts, and limit myself to three each.
Books: The Art of Explanation, Making Numbers Count, Missoula
Podcasts: Someone Knows Something, In the Dark, Accused
Who would you like to see answer these questions?
I have a database of wonderful people I’m trying to get to answer these questions! I’ve already featured two great people in this space, so I’ll recommend that you check out their answers. First, podcaster and victim advocate Dawn Gandhi. Second, true crime writer Megan M. Grant.
What do you do in your off-time to decompress from such heavy subject matter?
I play video games with my sons. Usually Roblox.
What haven’t I asked you about that you’d like to add?
Crime content can cause harm, so why write about crime? I wrote about that here.
And that’s What I Do for this week! Do you have any suggestions for who else you’d like me ask these questions of? Let me know, and I’ll see if I can get them!