User:Xan747/Essays/Naming perpetrators and victims

Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to propose amendments to Biographies of living persons policy on when articles should include or exclude the real name of living persons who are either the perpetrator or victim of criminal acts. The main motivation of this proposal is to develop clearer guidance and hopefully reduce the significant amount of debate on talk pages and noticeboards about this very specific and particularly contentious issue.

This proposal may define certain terms differently than they have been elsewhere, and should only be used as such within the scope of this proposal. Where such differences exist, they will be clearly noted.

The primary goals are to:

• consolidate into one place guidance that is currently spread out over multiple pages, and multiple sections of the main BLP page
• modify conflicting, vague or otherwise ill-defined guidance
• remove redundant or otherwise unnecessary guidance
• add guidance as necessary to fill in any previous gaps
• do all the above while being mindful of avoiding instruction creep

When to name persons involved with criminal acts

These policies do not determine whether an involved person or the act in question is notable enough to warrant an article or section of an article in the encyclopedia, only whether any of the involved persons should be referred to by their real name.

Naming an involved person meeting all the criteria is never mandatory, only allowable. Conversely, naming an involved person who fails any of the criteria is strictly prohibited. Where doubt or conflict exist, the default is to not name the involved person.

For expedience, qualifiers such as "alleged" are not used; absolutely include them in articles as necessary.

General

An involved person should only be named when multiple reliable sources use their name in connection with the criminal act over a sustained period of time. A single day's coverage in a few local news outlets is not enough. A day or two of national coverage by most major media outlets is on the threshold. National or international coverage over a week or two is clearly sufficient.

An involved person should not be named if any of the following apply:

• Their name was revealed against their own will, either by accident, or intentionally by someone unauthorized to do so.
• They meet any one of the exclusion criteria in the relevant section below.
• They do not meet all of the inclusion criteria in the relevant section below.

Public Figures

For purposes of this section, an involved person who met the requirements of a high-profile individual prior to the criminal act is considered a public figure.

Victims

Public figures who are victims of crimes should generally not be named if at the time of writing they have not publicized.

Perpetrators

criteria

Definitions

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Notes and explanations

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