What is "mug shot"

n. 1 A photograph taken of the head and shoulders, often from the front and in profile, usually taken in conjunction with somebody's arrest. 2 (context UK slang English) An unflattering photograph of a person's face.

n. a photograph of someone's face (especially one made for police records) [syn: mugshot]

A mug shot or mugshot (an informal term for police photograph, or booking photograph), is a photographic portrait typically taken after a person is arrested. The original purpose of the mug shot was to allow law enforcement to have a photographic record of an arrested individual to allow for identification by victims and investigators. However, in the United States entrepreneurs have recently began to exploit the mug shot for commercial gains via the Mug shot publishing industry.

Photographing of criminals began in the 1840s only a few years after the invention of photography, but it was not until 1888 that French police officer Alphonse Bertillon standardized the process.