Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography

Writing better crime-related articles
While assessing numerous crime-related articles, I have found myself repeatedly referring to certain guidelines and saying the same sorts of things time and time again. Editors seem to be insufficiently aware of these specific issues when writing about crime-related topics. The general advice about contributing to Wikipedia that is offered at Writing better articles is quite general. It does not highlight issues related to specific topics. Also, there are other more specialized essays about writing about specific topics, such as:
 * Writing about breeds
 * Writing about cannabis,
 * Manual of Style/Writing about fiction,
 * Writing about women,
 * Are there other essays or guidelines about writing articles about specific topics that I have missed?

I see this essay about writing better crime-related atricles as being something different from a style guide or part of the Manual of Style for Crime-related articles. The essay would set out the basic issues that editors might encounter when writing about crime-related topics and provide advice and considerations that editors should take into account. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 00:03, 9 May 2024 (UTC)


 * @Cameron Dewe This seems like a good idea, I have no opposition. I can't think of any suggestions for it off the top of my head, though. PARAKANYAA (talk) 14:03, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * @Cameron Dewe I agree that something like this (or even a style guide) is sorely needed. It's a little alarming how widespread the lack of editorial standards for crime-related articles are and a bit surprising that a style guide doesn't already exist. The Professional Wrestling style guide is one that's pretty good and is also about a topic area that requires a lot of editorial guidance: WikiProject Professional wrestling/Style guide. BoldGnome (talk) 04:21, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
 * @PARAKANYAA and BoldGnome: Thanks for your feedback. I have started drafting an essay in my sandbox. Some of the advice is pretty general. While other advice is specific about crime related articles, such as writing articles about crimes in the past tense because these are historic events. I would welcome comments and further specific ideas. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 04:50, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your work on this, it looks great so far! I wonder if there would be more value in centralising it to the Project Page and perhaps making it specifically a style guide? Essays are easily dismissed by stubborn editors whereas a style guide can be more easily relied on as the consensus of editors involved in the project, and can be more easily changed to reflect evolving consensus. (Plus it would lighten the burden on you.) Totally understand if that's not what you intend for this piece of work. BoldGnome (talk) 07:07, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
 * My initial thoughts were to draft something in my sandbox before moving it to an essay. But your suggestion of a style guide makes sense for some of the content that is specifically crime related. There is other content, about the 5 W questions, that is more content orientated that would probably make sense to be in a stand alone essay as it is good advice about writing articles generally. - Thanks for the feedback. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 07:56, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
 * @Cameron Dewe One specific issue that always tends to cause a lot of controversy is when exactly a perpetrator of a high profile crime warrants a separate article from the main crime article - it's often accepted, but usually as a sub-article from the main one, and even then. There was an essay that gave guidance along these lines, but IIRC that essay gave backwards guidance from how it was usually handled (it advised making an article on the perpetrator first, and not an event one - though that basically is how we deal with non modern serial killers). I have some thoughts on this myself but I definitely feel as if it's an issue that a crime style guide would need to handle.
 * Our handling of this area is kind of a mess, especially with serial vs mass murderers (who we treat very differently page-structure wise in most cases). Guidelines are sort of unwritten here in this respect. And we don't have any clear cut guidance on how to treat aspects of crime perpetrators in articles, except for the broad BLP guidance which obviously applies to crime in the "be careful about naming people" thing. This has to do with WP:BIO1E and WP:BLP1E - however, these guidelines explicitly notes "if media coverage of both the event and the individual's role grow larger, separate articles may become justified" and "if the event is highly significant, and the individual's role within it is a large one" then an article may be warranted (which everyone ignores) so where do we draw the line?
 * I think it should probably be noted that in any case, splits of that nature shouldn't be done unless it would improve the original and split pages, which is something no one seems to understand so we have people trying to make half baked split articles for notorious murderers even when it covers no new ground. Someone actually went and wrote a decent (but kind of overdetailed) article for Elliot Rodger that did cover what the main page didn't recently, after years and years of people saying he should have an article but not actually writing one. Content split is useless without the content after all.
 * Anyway I'll try to think of more things to cover. PARAKANYAA (talk) 05:05, 8 June 2024 (UTC)
 * @PARAKANYAA: Yes, I was involved in the debate about the Elliot Rodger article, as well as other proposals by the same editor for other proposed biographies where WP:BIO1E and WP:BLP1E were involved. There is also WP:CRIMINAL and WP:BLPCRIME which, I think, over-rides the other policies, too. I will go back over some arguments on these topics to see what has been put forward and accepted. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 05:27, 8 June 2024 (UTC)
 * An additional thought I've had is that many crime-related articles are written in a way where it tries to tells a dramatic 'true crime' story which describes each 'twist' and 'turn' in the events they describe, likely as a result of the sources relied upon for those articles. I know you've referred to Writing Better Articles, but I'd suggest borrowing heavily from WP:Encyclopedic style. BoldGnome (talk) 08:25, 11 June 2024 (UTC)
 * @BoldGnome: I have also found that being ENCYCLOPEDIC means that Wikipedia is not everything. Also, Wikipedia is not a news website, nor is it a memorial website. I also recently came across an opinion piece by a journalist who was asking why there were murders missing from Wikipedia, and pointing out that some of these articles about brutal murders were actually being deleted, basically because nobody was writing news stories about them. I will need to find it again. This started me thinking about media bias when reporting crime, as "If it bleeds, it leads." - which means newspapers will tend to report sensational or spectacular violent crimes, yet ignore mundane crime that makes up the majority of crime that is committed. I also came across some comments I made about the (mis-)use of crime statistics back in 2021. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 09:46, 11 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Found this opinion piece: Thomas, Sean (31 July 2013) "The murder of Stephen Lawrence and the strange case of the missing Wikipedia entries", The Telegraph. - I think this is an interesting observation about crime articles on Wikipedia. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 10:05, 11 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Having been distracted for the past month with replacing the British crime banner, I am now starting to think about this again. The idea of a style guide is starting to appeal to me more and more. There are a number of style issues I have come across recently that suggest further guidance may be needed for various issues specific to crime related articles that are already covered by existing guidelines.
 * One example is use of the somewhat vague label "criminal" being used in relation to biographies of people who are convicted of a serious crime, or crimes, of a particular type for which there is a much more precise term that could be used instead. Often the "criminal" label is not supported by any sources, while the other term(s) are often well supported by sources. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 11:20, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

What to do with British crime project template?
We discussed this template a while ago (several times actually) and since all articles that would be under their scope are under ours, and that project have not been active in many years, and given the scoping issues (it is overlapping with us and UK, nothing unique) I don't think there's anything with it that needs to stick around. We can just leave their project pages as defunct but interesting archives, but the continued existence of their talk page banner annoys me, since even to this day well meaning users will tag new articles with that very defunct project instead of this one.

Should I simply redirect it to the main crime & crimebio template? That will make duplicates annoying, but it would handily deal with the non zero amount of articles that are tagged under that dead project and not this one. That is also how the new WP Firefighting project handled it, as a merge between two old defunct projects. PARAKANYAA (talk) 14:27, 14 May 2024 (UTC)


 * @PARAKANYAA: project page currently advised using "... WikiProject United Kingdom and WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography ..." Looking at the talk pages that link to the British crime template, there are about 1,700 articles. I suspect many of these already have a Crime and Criminal Biography banner. While redirecting to the Crime and Criminal Biography banner would bring these articles into this WikiProject, I wonder if having a human, or a bot, visit the articles that are linked and change or merge the banners might be a better solution. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 05:47, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
 * @Cameron Dewe For now I'll just remove them when I see them. Maybe I'll do an WP:AWB run at it at some point. PARAKANYAA (talk) 05:06, 8 June 2024 (UTC)
 * @PARAKANYAA: Today, I have been looking at pages linked to Template:WikiProject British crime and editing some articles talk pages to remove the defunct banner template and replace it with WikiProject United Kingdom or WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography, or both of them, where these banners are missing and appropriate to add. After editing about thirty articles it looks like more than half the articles already have a Crime and Criminal Biography banner, but many are missing a WikiProject United Kingdom banner, but most of these might still have a more specific country or regional geography banner like England, Scotland or a county banner. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 06:01, 8 June 2024 (UTC)
 * @PARAKANYAA: I have now gone through and edited the talk pages of about 1,700 WikiProject British crime articles that were transcluding the Template:WikiProject British crime to remove this template and added the WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography Template to their talk pages, if it was not already present. I also added the WikiProject United Kingdom banner to many of the pages, because it was often not present either. Looking at what pages are left linked to the British crime template, I can find about 830 category talk pages and about 25 other pages that transclude the British crime template. There are also 4 template articles that redirect to the British crime template, although only one appears to have significant use for displaying the talk page banners. The others are mostly being used as redirect links between Template, User or Wikipedia talk pages, not transcluded as template banners. Only a couple of articles transclude these redirects, so it should be easy to substitute banners in these cases. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 09:43, 3 July 2024 (UTC)
 * @PARAKANYAA: I have now replaced the WikiProject British crime banner for all articles and categories that trancluded this template. There are a handful of remaining project pages that are directly related to the WikiProject British crime project page. Should I include those pages in the Crime and Criminal Biography WikiProject, or just leave them? There are also several redirects and I wonder if any of them should be redirected to the Crime and Criminal Biography WikiProject, too?
 * The remaining pages are mostly various User: or Wikipedia: talk pages that refer to the page Template:WikiProject British crime in their discussions or listings. I am not sure if doing anything with these pages is worthwhile.
 * I have closed one talk page discussion about the removal of the WikiProject banner with a note the banner has now been replaced with alternatives. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 23:22, 6 July 2024 (UTC)
 * @Cameron Dewe Unfortunately, my personal life has become a nightmare as of late so my activity or response times may not be the greatest, but 1) Great job replacing all that and 2) I would just leave them personally. PARAKANYAA (talk) 03:59, 7 July 2024 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Sexual and gender-based violence in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel
There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Sexual and gender-based violence in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. ASUKITE 15:19, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

what about Akanksha Dubey(Bhojpuri actress) murder case? What is the latest develpoment?Can anyone provide any info?
Akanksha Dubey suicide case: Family alleges foul play, lawyer says she was murdered Bhojpuri actress Akanksha Dubey passed away on March 26, 2023. While it is reported that she died by suicide, her family has alleged foul play. Bhojpuri actress Akanksha Dubey is no more. The actress passed away on March 26, 2023. She was found hanging in a hotel room on the said date. Her postmortem report claims that while the actress was not in an inebriated state, 20 ml of an unknown liquid had been found inside her stomach. She also had injury marks on her wrist and the mucous membrane of her stomach was choked. The late actress' mother, Madhu Dubey, has held two people responsible for her daughter's demise. She has accused Samar Singh and his brother Sanjay Singh of Akanksha's murder. Now, the late actress' family has alleged foul play. And Akanksha's lawyer, Shashank Shekhar Tripathi, too, has claimed that the actress was murdered. AKANKSHA DUBEY'S LAWYER MAKES SHOCKING ALLEGATIONS According to PTI, Akanksha Dubey's lawyer, Shashank Shekhar Tripathi, has written a letter to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and has demanded a CBI probe into this matter. According to the late actress' lawyer, Akanksha was murdered. He also claimed that despite Akanksha's mother's insistence that cremation should happen after the postmortem report, she was forcibly cremated.

Akanksha Dubey suicide case: Police on lookout for man who spent 17 mins in her room before her demise AKANKSHA DUBEY NO MORE Akanksha Dubey was reportedly in Varanasi for the shoot of an upcoming project. Post-filming, the actress headed to the Sarnath Hotel there. She was found dead in her hotel room. The Bhojpuri actress made her debut in the industry with Meri Jung Mera Faisla. She was also seen in Mujhse Shadi Karogi (Bhojpuri), Veeron Ke Veer and Fighter King, among others. Akanksha managed to carve a niche in the industry with her acting skills at a young age. 2405:201:401B:721E:D4DC:33B6:D7F7:8884 (talk) 18:52, 18 June 2024 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia does not have an article about Akanksha Dubey. This WikiProject is concerned with article about Crime and Criminal Biographies, so would not normally concern itself with articles about a person's death or suicide as a suicide is not normally considered a crime - as it is hard to imprison a dead person. If there are suspicious circumstances surrounding a death that is alleged to be a suicide, Wikipedia guidelines for writing about suspects advised against writing an article until there is a conviction secured. Your best source of information in this case is probably the news media, not Wikipedia as Wikipedia is not a news website. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 23:42, 6 July 2024 (UTC)

Hard-coded BLP violation in the content assessment
Can the field for Serial, mass, and spree killers on the content assessment be recoded to something else to avoid a BLP violation. For some individuals or cases in which there was a mass killing, the coding is "serial killer=yes". This constitutes a BLP violation for those who are not serial killers, but are included in the list for other reasons. It may seem a minor point, but there is a difference between a serial killer and - for example - someone who causes mass death through other means and with other motives. To avoid such a blatant BLP violation, the coding on this field should be changed. - SchroCat (talk) 15:06, 28 June 2024 (UTC)


 * @SchroCat Are you complaining about the existence of the task force as it applies to people or are you complaining about the actual parameter name? I don't think "serial killer task force" is much better. PARAKANYAA (talk) 15:15, 28 June 2024 (UTC)
 * The actual coding "serial killer=yes". Even as a supposedly "hidden" code, it still constitutes a BLP violation Renaming it as "Serial, mass, spree" would solve the problem, as would other possibilities. - SchroCat (talk) 15:24, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:2024 shooting at a Donald Trump rally
There is a requested move discussion at Talk:2024 shooting at a Donald Trump rally that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. RodRabelo7 (talk) 23:13, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:University of Texas at Austin stabbing
There is a requested move discussion at Talk:University of Texas at Austin stabbing that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject.  98𝚃𝙸𝙶𝙴𝚁𝙸𝚄𝚂  •  [𝚃𝙰𝙻𝙺]   22:42, 14 July 2024 (UTC)