Canadian criminals at your fingertips

Jim Rankin is an investigative reporter for the Toronto Star and one of the creators of the Star's Crime and Punishment website, an online series designed to explore the cause and effect of crime and punishment in Canada.

The site is a database that maps every criminal in the country using both postal code and sentencing information of inmates obtained by freedom of information requests. It has been in the works since 2003 and the collected data is presented in multi-media forms.

The site features:

interactive crime time lines beginning in the 1800s

pictures of old prisons

mini-documentaries

an interactive tour of a prison

interactive maps that visually represent incarceration data

games in which players can decide the sentence of real-life crimes

The site is both informative and entertaining, offering readers a depth of information on a topic that Rankin says is as common as sports reports.

"It's an alice in wonderland kind of experience," says Rankin about the site.

But Rankin recognizes the challenge of online journalism. The site does not get many hits, and Rankin believes that promotion through networking sites like Twitter and Facebook is beneficial.

"The idea is to make [the site] sticky," says Rankin, emphasizing the importance of site promotion. "If you build it, they won't come unless they can find it."

Related Sites:

Toronto Star Website
Crime and Punishment Website

Summary: Jim Rankin is part of a Toronto Star team which has created a Crime and Punishment website, a database which maps criminals in Canada.

-Kimb3rly