AWARDS
2022 The Gotham Film & Media Institute Week Project Market
2022 Athena Film Festival Works-in-Progress Pitch Participant
2022 The Rogovy Foundation grantee
2021 Finalist for IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund
Sigma Delta Chi Award for National Magazine Writing - Society of Professional Journalists
Finalist for Molly Award for Investigative Journalism - The Texas Observer
PRESS
Terrible secrets in Amish Country: A yearlong investigation uncovered 52 official cases …
NPR's Michel Martin speaks with reporter Sarah McClure about her year-long investigation about child sexual abuse in Amish communities.
The Center for Public Integrity
This week, we’re featuring Sarah McClure, who reported on sexual abuse in Amish communities by family members and clergy for Cosmopolitan and Type Investigations.
Wake-Up Call with Katie Couric
The Reporter Behind Cosmo’s Amish #MeToo Investigation. Sarah McClure opens up about her year-long reporting process.
Sexual abuse in Amish Country. There are a number of interconnected reasons for the unfolding sex abuse crisis in the close-knit religious communities that dot rural areas of states like Indiana and Pennsylvania. But a few main themes emerge from a yearlong investigation.
New York Magazine - Intelligencer
The Most Overlooked Story of the Week: After a year-long investigation and interviews with dozens of Amish women and law enforcement officials, Cosmo published this week a harrowing look at the culture of rampant and unpunished sexual abuse in the Amish community — “an open secret spanning generations.”
“Over the past year, I’ve interviewed nearly three dozen Amish people, in addition to law enforcement, judges, attorneys, outreach workers, and scholars. I’ve learned that sexual abuse in their communities is an open secret spanning generations.
An investigation into sexual abuse in Amish communities.
A year of reporting reveals a culture of incest, rape, and abuse.
Type Investigations - The Backstory
Sarah McClure reveals how Amish church leaders have covered up child sexual abuse by blaming and intimidating victims. Threats of excommunication or commitment to mental-health facilities further discourage survivors from speaking out. In this conversation, we discuss McClure’s reporting process and the difficulties of covering sexual assault in insular communities.
In an article that is published this month in Cosmopolitan Magazine, McClure writes that she identified 52 official cases of Amish girls and boys being sexually assaulted in seven states over the past two decades. The article also says that most often the sexual assaults are not reported to police, are kept quiet within the Amish community and that many times, the Amish side with the abuser rather than the victim of the assaults.
For the last year, Cosmopolitan and Type Investigations reported on the culture of incest, rape, and abuse in Amish communities, including some in Pennsylvania.