Talk:Mug shot

Card
If you look at some more recent booking photos, it doesn't look to me like the accused holds a card as often anymore since it's all done with digital photography and computers now, and the photo is linked to a database record concerning an arrest. JesseG 14:35, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Card, yes, the mugshot and bookings are used as identification tools as an alternative to contacting offices of vital records for an accused persons Birth certificate when one is unavailable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.43.192.106 (talk) 02:56, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

Factoid
Uh, I vaguely remember reading that the two photos were originally taken one after the other, and if the convict changed expression s/he made identification more difficult. To avoid this, the photos are now taken simultaneously. No source to back this up. Gannalech (talk) 23:03, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Merge proposal
The article Rogues gallery should be merged into this article because, per WP:Merge, this articles subject matter overlaps with the fore mentioned articles text. Cocoaguy ここがいいcontribstalk  Review Me! 17:53, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
 * There is some overlap, but they are not the same topic, therefore I oppose the merge. DreamGuy (talk) 18:53, 1 September 2009 (UTC)
 * I think they're pretty clearly distinctive topics. Allan Pinkerton was involved in the creation of both, but that's the extent of the overlap as far as I can see. Siawase (talk) 19:19, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

History
Slate credits the invention of the mugshot to Alphonse Bertillon, while the Daily Telegraph traces the origins to Liverpool in 1848. 80.189.33.199 (talk) 14:20, 29 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you, these look like great sources. I think rather than try to decide on just one person as the inventor, it would be more constructive to re-write the article something like "In the USA, mug shots were first used...", "In France, mug shots were first used......", "In Liverpool..." Likely, it's an idea that several people thought of in different places. Including these sources would also alleiviate the Globalize/US issues. Siawase (talk) 10:55, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Pulling a mug
Wandering here semi-randomly, I'm not about to do the necessary research to back me up, but I'd always heard that mug shots were so named from the (possibly) early British usage of photography where criminals contrived to pull a face ("pulling a mug", or "mugging", in a different sense to that of aggravated robbery itself) in front of the camera so as to make their features less like their everyday ones. This would often give an asymmetric and out-of-proportion facial appearance (as far as they could get away with) as if with a permanent scowl or some form of facial parallysis (on top of any actual scars and facial injuries they might have already had). Physiognomicists then studied these photos and determined that as criminals had asymmetric features, people with asymmetric features were likely to be criminals. However, I could quite possibly be incorrect about the cart being before the horse, in this case. For your collective consideration, nevertheless, whoever wanders this way in future. 178.105.138.196 (talk) 21:13, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Something wrong with the end of the gallery
The gallery is breaking the 'see also' section that follows it -- I can't figure out why. Can anyone else? valereee (talk) 12:31, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

"Use with non-criminals" section
The "Use with non-criminals"-section describes a kind of photograph that has a somewhat similar set-up as a mug shot, but isn't an actual police photograph. I've never heard of any way in which these kinds of photographs (which I know as a "pasfoto" in Dutch and I'm sure is best described as an "identity photograph" if you want to translate from French) are compared to mug shots. Is this all just original research? What connection is there between identity photographs and mug shots other than the (subjective) similarity? Is it that you aren't allowed to smile for certain types of documents? ~ Mable ( chat ) 18:33, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
 * To the best of my understanding, there are no laws in the U.S. which dictate the expression a person's face must (or must not) take when an identity photograph— for a police booking, a driver license, a passport, or any other document— is collected by a government agency. There are often requirements with regard to head coverings for which exceptions exist for some religious groups, but I believe that in the U.S. a face is just a face, no matter how you "hold" it for an identity photograph.  Along those lines, I am not certain that "mug shot" is the best place for this article, and "identity photograph" might indeed be a more appropriate location.  Maybe.  KDS4444 (talk) [Note: This user has admitted participating in paid editing,— trust but verify.] 16:39, 29 August 2017 (UTC)

1902 mugshot link
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrB8p9TVBBZs1UAJnCLuLkF;_ylc=X1MDOTYwNTc0ODMEX3IDMgRiY2sDODFpZnNzaGNoMGpqdSUyNmIlM0QzJTI2cyUzRGoxBGZyAwRncHJpZAN0clowSmVNelNJT19HSldHdFlndFZBBG10ZXN0aWQDbnVsbARuX3N1Z2cDMARvcmlnaW4DaW1hZ2VzLnNlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMEcXN0cmwDMjkEcXVlcnkDSi4gV2VsbHMgSm9obnNvbiAxOTAyIHBpY3R1cmUEdF9zdG1wAzE0OTQyNDI0MTgEdnRlc3RpZANudWxs?gprid=trZ0JeMzSIO_GJWGtYgtVA&pvid=PzdU_TY5LjGAyfzkWRBOfg21NTAuNQAAAABquWf7&fr2=sb-top-images.search.yahoo.com&p=J.+Wells+Johnson+1902+picture&ei=UTF-8&iscqry=&fr=sfp#id=6&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.etsystatic.com%2F000%2F0%2F5951640%2Fil_570xN.305841759.jpg&action=click — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.5.93.225 (talk) 11:23, 8 May 2017 (UTC)