Jenn Abelson

Jenn Abelson is an award-winning investigative reporter for The Washington Post.

Her podcast, Broken Doors, exposed the dangers of no-knock warrants and was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in audio journalism in 2023. She later revealed how hundreds of US law enforcement officers have sexually abused children, while officials across the criminal justice system have failed to protect kids. The investigation, Abused by the Badge, prompted new federal guidelines, changed the course of court cases and won the inaugural Peter F. Collier Award for Journalism Ethics. Abelson’s reporting on America’s deadly opioid epidemic was recognized in 2020 as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

Abelson has spent her career holding powerful people and institutions accountable. Before joining The Washington Post in 2019, she worked as an investigative reporter for the Boston Globe Spotlight Team. At the Globe, Abelson investigated sexual assault at private schools in New England, exposed doctors secretly performing two surgeries at the same time and revealed widespread mislabeling of fish in the restaurant industry.

In 2015, her series about dangerous off-campus college housing was recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Abelson worked with a teenage survivor of sexual assault to co-author the book, “I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope.” The memoir was recognized by the International Literary Association in 2019 as the Best Book in Young Adult Nonfiction.