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The Crime Wire Editorial Policy
Do you have a story to tell about the world of crime? If so,
The Crime Wire is interested in articles from the past, the present, and maybe even the future! Let's talk editorial policy.
Articles on
The Crime Wire are held to a very high standard due to the sensitive nature of this type of content.
For this reason, it is critical that authors demonstrate due diligence and present credible facts and sources. Therefore, it is okay to express your opinion in an article, but you must clearly state that it is your opinion and, ideally, base any speculative assertion on material evidence, corroborated information, and/or logical analysis.
Here are some hints that will help anyone interested in writing for
The Crime Wire.
How to Demonstrate Credibility
- Professional Experience: Do you have investigative experience? Law enforcement? Deep research experience? Educate us about some aspects of your practice or professional experience.
- Personal Experience: Do you have personal experience with a crime or something you feel needs to be exposed? If your story explores how you dealt with a particular problem or experience other people might also have, then it likely will be helpful to others.
- Citing sources: Citing your sources will significantly boost your article's credibility. It will also give readers a great place to start if they're interested in learning more. Additionally, it allows our editors and staffers to feel more confident in your material.
Tips for Crafting High-Quality Articles
- Use infographics: Original diagrams, charts, and other visuals depicting crime scenes, maps, statistics, and other relevant information are a great way to reinforce and illustrate your content. However, please make sure they are clear and easy to read; blurry or low-quality infographics will frustrate readers.
- Make a clear distinction between opinion and fact: Articles should clearly state whether an approach to a topic is your opinion/theory or if you are citing credible sources/research. Expressions of opinions on topical subjects are best when they are informative, thoroughly explained, and applicable to the topic in some manner.
- Insert high-quality links: Our editors ask that you "show your work" by citing primary sources for your research that are objective, trustworthy, timely, and unbiased. For example, throughout your article, use news websites, academic or scientific journalism, etc., to bolster your argument or topic.
- Keep content up-to-date: If the story or subject you're covering is a current event, legal case, investigation, etc., our editors ask that you regularly update your article as new developments happen: a court decision, new evidence, arrests, a death that is relevant, etc.
- Write from personal or expert experience: It's easy to find articles on true crime, serial killers, disappearance, etc., that feel like regurgitated material with the same facts and opinions, so put your expertise and experience on display!
What to Avoid
- Being disrespectful: When possible, be discreet about victims' friends, family, and co-workers' names and locations (including names of companies if not essential to the story). Some personal facts are clearly relevant, but if we can respect people's privacy while still telling a compelling story, we should err on the side of discretion.
- Misleading intentions: Avoid posting opinions as facts by clearly articulating the difference between your opinions and objective, proven facts.
- Purely personal content: Articles that are of a purely personal nature and don't supply readers with useful or interesting information are not likely to do well on this site.
- Bland regurgitations: Articles that simply summarize well-known information from Wikipedia or other popular sources do not make for valuable content given the massive amount of online information already available to the reader.
- Unsourced claims: The information you share in articles should be true, so if you're making a claim about something that isn't widely known, make sure to back up your info by explaining where it comes from or including a link to a reputable source.
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