User:Brown997/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Crime and violence in Latin America

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose this article because the topic is super relevant to our course for this semester. It seemed like a strong survey article of crime in Latin America, which could provide an important introduction to such a massive topic. My preliminary impression was positive. As I scrolled through the article, it seemed extensive, there seemed to be plenty of sources, and the organization seemed strong.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

The lead section is strong. The first sentence is concise and captivating, though it does not totally summarize the contents of the article. The rest of the lead paragraph sets up the article well and summarize its contents, which is good for a reader who is skimming rather than reading in detail. The provided information seems relevant to the topic of crime and violence in Latin America. The content initially seemed strong and up to date based on the dates on a few of the sources that I clicked. However, there is a Wikipedia note that states that the article needs to be updated. This is a note from March 2021, which indicates that the article may be even more dated in 2023. One section where this becomes incredibly clear is the Crime in Guatemala section. This part is limited to two general sentences, and links to a fairly short Crime in Guatemala page. It is much sparser than the sections that are specific to other Latin American nations. The tone and balance seems fairly neutral in the language used, though gaps in the sources may implicitly make the article unbalanced. It may be giving disproportionate weight to the sources included, based on these gaps. The sourcing is fairly limited for the massive topic undertaken by this page, which Wikipedia highlights with a warning: "This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed." The organization of the article is a strong point. The sections are clearly defined, and it is easy to identify causes of violence, implications for violence in the region, and specifics for the Latin American nations included on the page. As far as the writing quality, I did not find any obvious spelling or grammatical errors on first pass. The images and their captions are definitely a weak point. Only one of the 8 images has an appropriately linked source, and many of the short captions and images of "slums" aren't particularly relevant to the specific content of the page. The talk page identifies many weaknesses of the article, without many responses. The article is part of two projects: WikiProject Latin America and WikiProject Crime. Ultimately, though my initial impression of the article was positive, a closer reading reveals significant issues related to content, sourcing, and visuals.

Assignment: Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — ~.