Category talk:20th-century criminals

Latest comment: 8 years ago by Pincrete in topic Do we really need this page?

Do we really need this page? edit

As the talk title says, what exactly is the purpose of this 'category', other than arbitrarily list people who could range from petty thieves to violent murderers or terrorists. Unless this page is populated by ALL those who were EVER 'criminals' over a whole century, which would be like a few thousand, famous or otherwise, this page is relatively 'pointless'. Besides, I cannot see why someone like Polanski is on the same list as some assassin, serial killer or Waffen SS soldier, & appears more like some arbitrary pet project to lump these people together for fun just to have this 'category' rather than serious intention to list some real criminals from all over the world who did some real damage. 109.153.105.18 (talk) 13:21, 13 September 2010 (UTC)Reply

I endorse this 2010 observation, Marcus Garvey is here, but Al Capone missing, people like Gaddafi, who are rhetorically labelled 'criminal' are here. What are the criteria for inclusion? Whilst war criminals are fairly consistently included, ordinary professional criminals seem mostly excluded. Is everyone who has ever been committed a crime eligible? If so the list would be massive and include Gandhi, Mandela and Richard Nixon (who had to acknowledge his crimes as part of his pardon). Pincrete (talk) 09:05, 9 February 2016 (UTC)Reply