Methodology
What counts as a takedown
The inclusion rule is carried in the dataset itself, not written for this page. This is it, unedited.
An incident enters the verified core when a law-enforcement agency, prosecutor, court, or other government-backed authority materially seized, redirected, sinkholed, disabled, covertly took control of, remotely remediated, or compelled the shutdown of internet infrastructure serving an illicit online service. Arrest-only cases, indictment-only cases, sanctions-only actions, ordinary platform moderation, and purely private civil takedowns are excluded from the core and recorded separately.
Outcomes for the people attached to an incident use a fixed vocabulary, so incidents can be compared across years, jurisdictions, and case types. Every label below is a group of action types recorded against a named person, never an aggregate figure quoted by an agency. Official aggregate counts are kept in separate fields and are never added to these.
| Status label | Definition |
|---|---|
| Charged | A formal criminal charge against a named person is on the public record. A superseding indictment does not create a second person record or a second count. Counted from person records with an action type of charged or indicted. |
| Apprehended | A named person was taken into custody, or handed themselves in. Extradition is recorded as its own action and is never counted as a second apprehension. Counted from person records with an action type of arrested, detained, or surrendered. |
| Convicted | A named person was convicted at trial or entered a guilty plea. Sentencing is recorded separately, so a conviction here does not imply a sentence is on the record. Counted from person records with an action type of convicted or pleaded guilty. |
| Fugitive | A named person is publicly sought and not recorded as being in custody. The label reflects the last public statement, not a check made at the research cutoff. Counted from person records with an action type of wanted. |
Unknown does not mean zero. A blank count means the public record does not establish a number. Zero appears only where a source explicitly establishes that the number is zero.