Template talk:Infobox Criminal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Template:Infobox Criminal page.
This is a controversial topic that may be under dispute. Please read this page and discuss substantial changes here before making them.
Make sure to supply full citations when adding information and consider tagging or removing uncited/unciteable information.

Contents

[edit] Detailed usage

{{Infobox Criminal
| subject_name   = Name of criminal
| image_name     = Name of the image, e.g. Dahmer.jpg
| image_size     = 
| image_caption  = 
| date_of_birth  = Birth date
| place_of_birth = Birth place
| date_of_death  = Date of death (leave blank if still living)
| place_of_death = Place of death (leave blank if still living)
| alias          = Any aliases used by person
| charge         = Official charges laid against individual (Dates of charges)
| conviction     = Crimes individual was convicted of (Dates of conviction)
| penalty        = Sentence for crimes (list each separately, in chronological order)
| status         = e.g. at-large, in prison, on parole, released, dead (specify if 
   executed), etc.
| occupation     = 
| spouse         = Name of spouse (leave blank if N/A)
| parents        = Names of parents (leave blank if N/A)
| children       = Names of children (leave blank if N/A)
}}


[edit] Viewpoint

I do not think that it is proper to list the charges against a person. The only thing that really counts the what the person was convicted of. Especially if there was a trial: the person was still charged with something and, if found innocent, was convicted of nothing and still has no criminal record. That means if the trial is still pending, then you should note that also. That can present difficulties if the person dies before being brought to trail, but if in doubt, then do not ues this template. To be resonable, I guess I will leave the name of the template parameter as is, until I summon the motive to edit the current usages, but I changed the lable.--76.203.48.177 00:23, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree that charges should be removed from the template. If it is relevant to mention charges, those details belong in the article body with more information about the case. Switzpaw (talk) 07:17, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Editorial clarifications

"and the like" is not clear; I specified what those examples have in common: seriousness of the crimes and notoriety of the criminals due to those crimes; main current notability of the person being his or her criminal conviction. Added some related emphasis to following sentence as well. Please see some related discussion in Talk:Lewis Libby#Criminal infobox and Talk:Lewis Libby#Edit war. People who had extensive articles on them prior to their conviction of crimes are already deemed notable enough to have such extensive articles; their later criminal convictions did not lead to their having detailed articles about them in Wikipedia, because they were already notable enough for other reasons to have such articles (e.g., Martha Stewart, Winona Ryder; but Lewis Libby was barely on the Wikipedia radar until his involvement in the Plame affair and his indictment and conviction relating to that involvement. His notability, notoriety, and legal disbarment is a direct result of the conviction following the indictment. --NYScholar 20:26, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Opinion on the record

  • This template should be deleted -- as should most infobox templates. There are lots of criminals that are also authors, politicians, and have other accomplishments and this just senselessly complicates the matter.EvanCarroll (talk) 19:25, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
If someone is in prison because of a criminal conviction, isn't it important to use this infobox? An incarceration would suggest that their station in life has significantly changed from their previous occupation. Switzpaw (talk) 05:25, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Usage

I think this page could definitely do with a usage section detailing what information to put in the boxes. For example, regarding conviction(s) - do we want to list each conviction separately, or just sum them up - e.g. Robbery (3 counts), Murder (2 counts) In particular, "status" and "occupation" need explanation - do we mean current occupation or their occupation before jail time? By status, do we mean whether the person is alive, or more specifically whether they're in jail or at large. Some of these may seem rather obvious, but, it would do with some stating. I'll start up a section at the top of this talk page. -Elizabennet | talk 18:48, 25 December 2007 (UTC)