User:Josieml04/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Violence against prostitutes

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article to evaluate because it is relevant to the class material. It is important that this topic has a good article because it is a serious and important topic that needs more awareness. My preliminary impression was positive, as it appears to be well filled out and have lots of sources.

Evaluate the article
The lead section for this article is lacking a breakdown of the sections of the article. It is also missing relevant links to other articles in wikipedia that may be necessary for a reader to gain a preliminary understanding of the topic. Overall, the lead in section needs more information about what constitutes violence and what constitutes prostitution, and what the rest of the article is going to include. While the lead section is certainly brief, it does not really explain what violence against prostitutes is, just the effects of it.

The content of the article is all relevant to the topic, however, it is not up to date. Most of the "recent" information is from 2016 at the latest, which is certainly not the last time this type of violence occurred or was studied. Additionally, there are certain sections that are not properly represented within the article. For instance, the section on the types of violence that prostitutes face is lacking information on sexual violence and overflowing with information on physical violence. While discussing physical violence is relevant and important, sexual violence is equally so, and the two are often intertwined which is not mentioned in the article. There is also a lot of focus on serial killers of prostitutes which is certainly relevant to the topic, but is not well cited.

As stated previously, the sources are not dated past 2016, meaning there is about 5 years worth of studies and literature not referenced in the article. Additionally, there are not many, if any, sources that focus on marginalized groups within prostitutes, such as black women and the different violence they experience. The article as a whole, however, does deal with Wikipedia's equity gaps, as prostitutes are a marginalized group.

The article is, overall, well written and clear. It is not difficult to understand and clearly lays out information in sections that are easy to read. The only "media" included in the article is a chart from a study, which is cited appropriately. This lack of media is probably better because of the sensitive nature of the topic of the article.

Looking at the talk page, there has been much discussion and arguing over the use of the term "prostitution" versus "sex work." There appear to be a few parties who were, at a point, constantly changing the language used in the article, but this appears to have stopped around 2015. There is also discussion of the validity of certain sources, which I believe lends itself to the validity of the article itself. The article is also part of several WikiProjects, including WikiProject Crime, WikiProject Law, WikiProject Law Enforcement, and a series on violence against women.

Overall, the article is developed, but not super well. It is great on information before 2016 or so, but is not at all up to date. It could also use more diverse sources and a better lead in section. The article does contain lots of important, relevant information, it just does not include all the important and relevant information it should.

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