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Dataout Ontology

When monitoring cases of crimes and discrimination based on SOGIESC, we collect data from heterogeneous sources. To make this process sustainable, we developed Dataout Ontology. Using the ontology, we represent instances of human rights violations in Linked Data, encoding their provenance information and establishing connections between them and other datasets. This approach enables us to track violations systematically, discover new patterns, and produce reliable data, which can be freely reused by other investigators. This page provides the documentation of Dataout Ontology.

DOIGitHub RepositoryLicense: CC-BY-4.0
Revision: 1.0.0|This version
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Cite as: Dataout Foundation. Dataout Ontology, Revision 1.0.0, 2026-07-16. Retrieved from: https://dataout.org/ontology

Description back to ToC

This ontology is intended to represent data on SOGIESC-based crimes and discrimination, as well as processes associated with the collection of such data. The idea behind the Dataout Ontology is to represent instances of human rights violations as phenomena that may be observed in different sources, such as court cases or mass-media publications. There are two main components: the provenance information of an incident and its content. Each observed incident is modelled as an instance of Monitoring Record, resulting from Monitoring Activity. A monitoring record connects to the content and metadata of an incident. There are also controlled vocabularies intended for categorising instances. This ontology introduces custom classes and properties and reuses the PROV Ontology, Schema.org, and DCMI Metadata Terms.

Cross-reference for classes, object properties and data properties back to ToC

This section provides details for each class and property defined by Dataout Ontology.

Classes

Courtc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#Court

Class representing a court of any level.
has super-classes
Organization c
is in domain of
court code dp

Defendantc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#Defendant

A legal or natural person with a role of a defendant in a legal process.
is in domain of
defendant category op
is in range of
has defendant op

Monitoring Activityc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#MonitoringActivity

Class representing a single monitoring activity. Dataout conducts monitorings of different categories, such as hate crimes, discrimination, administrative and criminal persecution. The categories of monitoring are defined by the MonitoringCategoryScheme.
has super-classes
Activity c
is in domain of
category of monitoring op

Monitoring Recordc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#MonitoringRecord

A single record resulting from a monitoring activity. For example, if a monitoring activity documents hate crime incidents, an entity representing a hate crime would be a monitoring record.
has super-classes
Entity c
is in domain of
concerns legal article op, has defendant op, has penalty op, has snippet dp, has trigger object op, mentioned in op, monitored incident year dp, monitoring record number dp

Penaltyc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#Penalty

Penalty imposed by an official body, such as a court.
is in domain of
penalty category op, penalty value op
is in range of
has penalty op

Sourcec back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#Source

A source of a monitoring record indicating provenance information.
has super-classes
Entity c
is in domain of
court document date dp, court document number dp, source category op, unique court document ID dp
is in range of
mentioned in op

Trigger Objectc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#TriggerObject

A trigger object is an information object or public action that was used by the authorities as a reason to initiate an administrative or criminal proceeding. For example, in our monitoring of administrative persecution targeting LGBTQIA+ expression in Russia, a trigger object could be a mass media publication, which the Russian mass media regulator (Roskomnadzor) found to be violating, which resulted in a court case against a media company dissimianting such publication.
is in domain of
trigger object category op
is in range of
has trigger object op

Object Properties

category of monitoringop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#monitoringCategory

Connects a monitoring activity to its category.
has domain
Monitoring Activity c
has range
Concept c

concerns legal articleop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#concernsLegalArticle

Connect a monitoring record to a legal article. Useful when monitoring state persecution.
has domain
Monitoring Record c
has range
Legislation c

defendant categoryop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#defendantCategory

Connects a defendant to its category.
has domain
Defendant c
has range
Concept c

has defendantop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#hasDefendant

A natural person or legal entity, which is referred to as a defendant in a source documents (for example, a court decision or a mass media publication).
has domain
Monitoring Record c
has range
Defendant c

has penaltyop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#hasPenalty

Connects a penalty imposed on a defendant by an official body (a court) to a monitoring record, in which it was mentioned.
has domain
Monitoring Record c
has range
Penalty c

has trigger objectop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#hasTriggerObject

Connects a trigger object to a monitoring record, in which it was mentioned.
has domain
Monitoring Record c
has range
Trigger Object c

mentioned inop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#mentionedIn

Used to connect a monitoring record to a source that mentions some information about a monitoring record.
has domain
Monitoring Record c
has range
Source c

penalty categoryop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#penaltyCategory

Connects a penalty to its category.
has domain
Penalty c
has range
Concept c

penalty valueop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#penaltyValue

Connects a penalty to its value. The value of this property can be a triple, which indicates its quantitative unit (such as a monetary amount or days) and amount. For example, a penalty value could be a quantitative unit of 10 days if the penalty category is detention.
has domain
Penalty c
has range
Structured Value c

source categoryop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#sourceCategory

Connects a source to its category.
has domain
Source c
has range
Concept c

trigger object categoryop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#triggerObjectCategory

Categories of trigger objects describe what such object is (for example, a film, a social media post, a protest), but not its legal interpretation by authorities.
has domain
Trigger Object c
has range
Concept c

Data Properties

court codedp back to ToC or Data Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#courtCode

An identifier code assigned to a court by a judicial or administrative authority.
has super-properties
identifier dp
has domain
Court c
has range
Literal

court document datedp back to ToC or Data Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#courtDocumentDate

Indicates a date stated on a court document.
has super-properties
date dp
has domain
Source c
has range
Literal

court document numberdp back to ToC or Data Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#courtDocumentNumber

Used to indicate a number of a court document assigned by court. It is not necessarily a unique identifier. To indicate unique identifiers, use uniqueCourtDocumentID.
has super-properties
identifier dp
has domain
Source c
has range
Literal

has snippetdp back to ToC or Data Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#hasSnippet

Connects a monitoring record to its textual summary (a snippet).
has domain
Monitoring Record c
has range
Literal

monitored incident yeardp back to ToC or Data Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#monitoredIncidentYear

We categorise monitored incidents by year, during which they occured. This property represents years of incidents.
has domain
Monitoring Record c
has range
Literal

monitoring record numberdp back to ToC or Data Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#monitoringRecordNumber

A unique identifier assigned to a monitoring record within the Dataout monitoring system.
has super-properties
identifier dp
has domain
Monitoring Record c
has range
Literal

unique court document IDdp back to ToC or Data Property ToC

IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#uniqueCourtDocumentID

Unique court document ID assigned by court.
has super-properties
identifier dp
has domain
Source c
has range
Literal

Controlled vocabularies back to ToC

Monitoring CategoriesIRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#MonitoringCategoryScheme
Administrative persecution
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#administrativePersecution
Criminal persecution
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#criminalPersecution
Matches
Hate crimes
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#hateCrimes
Matches
Legislation CategoriesIRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#LegislationCategoryScheme
Constitution
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#constitution
Federal law
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#federalLaw
Administrative Code
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#administrativeCode
Criminal Code
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#criminalCode
Penalty CategoriesIRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#PenaltyCategoryScheme
Warning
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#warning
Fine
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#fine
Detention
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#detention
Expulsion
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#expulsion
Defendant CategoriesIRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#DefendantCategoryScheme
Legal entity
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#legalEntity
Matches
Official
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#official
used in a legal context.
Matches
Individual
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#individual
Matches
Source CategoriesIRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#SourceCategoryScheme
Court document
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#courtDocument
Matches
Mass media publication
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#massMediaPublication
Used both as a source category and trigger object category
Matches
Social media post
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#socialMediaPost
Used both as a source category and trigger object category
Matches
Press release
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#pressRelease
Matches
Trigger Object CategoriesIRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#TriggerObjectCategoryScheme
Mass media publication
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#massMediaPublication
Used both as a source category and trigger object category
Matches
Social media post
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#socialMediaPost
Used both as a source category and trigger object category
Matches
Film
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#film
Matches
TV series
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#tvSeries
Matches
Music video
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#musicVideo
Matches
TV programme
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#tvProgramme
Matches
Book
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#book
Matches
Relations
Comics
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#comicBook
Matches
Relations
Protest
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#protest
Matches
Relations
Public action
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#publicAction
Relations
Merchandise
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#merchandise
Used to categorise products and items
Matches
Web content
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#webContent
Matches
Relations
Dating profile
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#datingProfile
Matches
Relations
Queer venue
IRI: https://dataout.org/ontology#queerVenue
We introduced this category to indicate cases of persecution against legal and natural persons associated with queer venues. In such cases, there is usually not a single trigger object indicated, but the fact that a venue is intended for LGBTQIA+ people serves as a trigger. This category can be seen as a subcategory of a public action. Note that this category does not indicate a (type of) physical place.
Matches
Relations

Acknowledgments back to ToC

The authors would like to thank Silvio Peroni for developing LODE, a Live OWL Documentation Environment, which is used for representing the Cross Referencing Section of this document and Daniel Garijo for developing Widoco, the program used to create the template used in this documentation.

Updated on: 23 August 2026