Webmug shot, photographic image taken by law enforcement officials during the booking process to be used to identify individuals accused of a crime. It usually appears as two portraits focused tightly on the sitter’s head, one in which the subject faces the camera and the other in profile. Weba mug shot or mugshot (an informal term for police photograph or booking photograph) is a photographic portrait of a person from the shoulders up, typically taken after a person is placed under arrest. Webin a new york times (nyt) online search from 1851 to the present, mugshot is used for the first time in 1955; Two years earlier than “mug shot”, and 2700 times versus 803. As the nyt search engine indicates, the resulting number of articles is not exact, only approximate. Webthrough the 19th century mug shots, we can witness the evolution of photography as a tool for identification and criminal investigation. These early mug shots paved the way for the development of modern forensic techniques and the establishment of standardized procedures in law enforcement. Webbertillon invented the ‘mug shot’, which required convicts to pose for a portrait photograph and a profile photograph, both against a plain backdrop with controlled lighting. Webjonathan finn (communications studies, wilfrid laurier u. ) begins by exploring the early use of photography in the nineteenth century and the development of theories of physiognomy and phrenology to explain criminal behavior. Webjonathan finn analyzes the development of police photography in the nineteenth century to foreground a critique of three identification practices that are fundamental to current police work:. Webalthough some of bertillon’s techniques and theories have fallen into disrepute, he’s credited with standardizing two major advances still in use today: The mug shot and the crime scene photograph. The mug shot was a humdrum but reliable tool for keeping track of suspects and arrests. From mug shot to surveillance society: Webin the 1880s, alphonse bertillon, an anthropologist and chief of the judicial identification service of france, invented the mug shot, a doubled photographic portrait focused tightly on the head, with one view facing the camera and the other in profile.
