User:Cameron Dewe/sandbox

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Wikipedia:Writing about crime-related topics

This essay is in development. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. Consider these views with discretion, especially since this page is still under construction.

This is an essay on article content. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on how the content policies may be interpreted within their area of interest. This information is not a formal Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.

Shortcut WP:CRIME-RELATED

This is an essay on writing better articles and some things to consider when contributing to articles about crime-related topics. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

Shortcut WP:CRIME-RELATED

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When writing about crime-related topics, editors may find that some core Wikipedia guidelines provide insufficient guidance. This essay aims to provide some further interpretation or clarification for editors when writing crime-related articles.

Type of article

The type of article will depend on what is being written about. Articles can be about a person, i.e. a biography, a specific crime, or an event or incident, as well as about a concept, object or other topic related to crime. Be aware that sometimes an article can change type along with a change of name. This typically happens if a biography is changed to an event because a person is only notable for a single event and so the article should be written about the crime rather than the person.

Article title

There are several guidelines that explain article naming conventions. Article titles have several criteria and there are differing conventions for [crimes of] violence and death compared to events. Which convention is used will depend on what happened and what the article is about.

Article content

An article should answer the 5 "W" questions

An article should answer the 5 "W" questions that readers might have about a topic.

• "Who?"
• "What?"
• "When?"
• "Where?"
• "Why?'"
• and also "How?", if it is relevant.

Exactly what words go after these questions will often depend on the reader and what aspect of the topic is about is being questioned. For events, some questions that comes to mind include: "What happened?", "Who is/was involved?", When and Where did it happen?", "How and Why did it happen?". If one is writig about a particular concept or object then questions might be "What is the purpose of the topic?", "Why does the topics exist?", "How does the the topic work?", "Where is the topic found?", etc. These questions are potentially numerous, but some will usually be obvious. Write the article to answer a reasonable number of these questions.

Generally, write a crime-related article in the past tense

Contrary to the default guidance given in Manual of Style § Verb tense, a crime-related article should generally be written in the past tense, not the present tense. This is because crime-related articles are generally written about events that have happened in the past and often are about people who are now deceased. The present tense should be reserved for ongoing situations, including biographies of living people.

The future tense should be reserved for things that will, or are expected to, happen in the future.

The word "would"

Editors sometimes use the word "would" in articles, perhaps in the mistaken belief they are writing in the present tense. An example is this article.

"Would" is the past tense of the verb "will".^[1] While the word "will" is often used to talk about a belief about what will happen in the future, if the word "would" is used then one is either talking about the past, or talking about a hypothesis and imagining what might have happened, or else being polite. If one is writing about a past event, usually, the word "would" can be omitted and the following verb can be changed to the past tense to make for more concise English. Since Wikipedia does not speculate on the future, so it should not be necessary to hypothesise about the future, so using the word "would" is only needed on rare occasions. Similarly, the word "will" is only necessary in situations where a future event is scheduled to occur. In crime-related articles this is likely for future judicial proceedings or prisoner releases and the like.

(See: WP:INTOTHEWOULDS for more on the use of "would".)