Wikidata:Property proposal/criminal motive
motive
[edit]Originally proposed at Wikidata:Property proposal/Generic
| Description | verified reasoning behind an action |
|---|---|
| Aliases | motive |
| Represents | motive (Q4583280) |
| Data type | Item |
| Template parameter | motive |
| Domain | item |
| Example 1 | Pittsburgh synagogue shooting (Q57830735)motiveantisemitism (Q22649) |
| Example 2 | Horse murders (Q5905629)motiveinsurance fraud (Q838081) |
| Example 3 | Tate murders (Q24930704)motiveunknown value |
| See also | has cause (P828), has goal (P3712) |
Motivation
[edit]This would be a subproperty of has cause (P828), which is too generic. The cause can be separated from the motive of a crime. A cause could be entrapment (Q1066302), but a motive cannot be. This can also be useful for specifying 'unknown value' in cases that have not yet concluded. Only reasonings of a crime by the suspect would be valid, and sources would be necessary to verify the claims. -wd-Ryan (Talk/Edits) 03:40, 18 May 2025 (UTC)
Discussion
[edit]
Support. Seems useful to distinguish between causes related to the perpetrator and causes related to other agents. Another example where this would be useful might be something like criminal motiverevenge (Q1712140) has cause (P828)adultery (Q234213). –IagoQnsi (talk) 02:28, 22 July 2025 (UTC)
- Good example! -wd-Ryan (Talk/Edits) 16:10, 22 July 2025 (UTC)
Comment Hmm, does this need to be restricted to "criminal"? I think any time you want to describe the reasoning of the person doing the action then "motive" or "motivation" works. ArthurPSmith (talk) 21:21, 22 July 2025 (UTC)
- That's a good point, I agree, I updated the proposal, feel free to add any examples you were thinking of. -wd-Ryan (Talk/Edits) 22:18, 22 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hmm, nothing specific, but I think life events like marriage or relocation (immigration) or change of careers etc. are things that you might often have a stated motive for that would be useful to record. But criminal actions are probably by far the most common case, I just didn't see that it needed to be restricted. Support by the way. ArthurPSmith (talk) 21:42, 23 July 2025 (UTC)
- Hmm, nothing specific, but I think life events like marriage or relocation (immigration) or change of careers etc. are things that you might often have a stated motive for that would be useful to record. But criminal actions are probably by far the most common case, I just didn't see that it needed to be restricted.
- That's a good point, I agree, I updated the proposal, feel free to add any examples you were thinking of. -wd-Ryan (Talk/Edits) 22:18, 22 July 2025 (UTC)
- Slippery slope, I'm leaning towards an
Oppose. If there is potential for abuse it will be abused, so I think we should stick to documented facts. I think for people who have been accused of something we should explicitly forbid using such a property unless there is a conviction. I don't think any admins want to spend their day cleaning up claims that break the LP policy or links to gossip magazines. There's already plenty of people that abuse Wikidata to call people rapists etc. Maybe that's true in some of the cases, but the same people don't spend any time making sure such statements are entered in the proper manner and making sure they are policy compliant. Infrastruktur (talk) 08:24, 23 July 2025 (UTC)
- Anyone who is looking to abuse Wikidata can already use the broader has cause (P828) property. I don't think this should be a valid reason to stop well-intentioned editors from modeling this data. I specified that sources would be required, and they'd have to be reliable of course. I'll happily check in on the property often to catch abuse. -wd-Ryan (Talk/Edits) 15:05, 23 July 2025 (UTC)
- Just about every property on Wikidata can be abused in one way or another. This information is also documented on countless Wikipedia articles via infobox fields and various categories (e.g. en:Category:Racially motivated violence by target, en:Category:Religiously motivated violence by target, en:Category:Special-interest terrorism, etc), so it doesn't seem controversial to be tracking this info. With a citation-needed constraint (Q54554025) I don't see the issue. Might also help to have property constraint (P2302)conflicts-with constraint (Q21502838)
property (P2306)instance of (P31) . –IagoQnsi (talk) 06:40, 24 July 2025 (UTC)item of property constraint (P2305)human (Q5) - I agree with wd-Ryan and IagoQnsi. I think we all agree that most users who abuse or vandalize Wikidata likely do not take the time to make sure they are entering their statements properly. Therefore, the absence of a property for properly modeling certain statements is more likely to discourage well-intentioned editors from modeling this type of data. Alex rosenberg35 (talk) 05:35, 31 March 2026 (UTC)
- Support JhowieNitnek (talk) 22:47, 20 February 2026 (UTC)
- Support I don't know about the property's use specifically for criminal motive, but it is important to be able to model intent in general. In absence of a motive or intent property, has cause (P828) and has goal (P3712) seem to be used instead, but they do not capture the same semantics. has goal (P3712) is usually the what, but motivation or intent is the underlying why.
- While I agree that a "criminal motive" property could be abused, I argue "motive" as a more general property is absolutely needed for broader utility -- criminal motive would just be one possible application. It would also be appropriate for modeling motive in creating new inventions or performing scientific inquiries. In any case, if there continues to be no such property, users are likely to continue inadvertently misusing or abusing other properties instead.
- I suggest this property represent motivation (Q644302) instead, which is not limited to criminal intent. motive (Q4583280) could be regarded as a subclass. --Alex rosenberg35 (talk) 05:03, 31 March 2026 (UTC)
