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At the beginning of the twentieth century, criminals, both alleged and convicted, were routinely photographed and fingerprinted-and these visual representations of their criminal nature were archived for possible future use. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a plethora of new tools-biometrics, DNA analysis, digital imagery, and computer databases-similarly provide new ways for representing the criminal.Capturing the Criminal Image traces how the act of representing-and watching-is central to modern law enforcement. Jonathan 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: fingerprinting, DNA analysis, and surveillance programs and databases. He shows these practices at work by examining specific police and border-security programs, including several that were established by the U.S. government after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Contemporary law enforcement practices, he argues, position the body as something that is potentially criminal.As Finn reveals, the collection and archiving of identification data-which consist today of much more than photographs or fingerprints-reflect a reconceptualization of the body itself. And once archived, identification data can be interpreted and reinterpreted according to highly mutable and sometimes dubious conceptions of crime and criminality.
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Capturing the Criminal Image
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Capturing the Criminal Image From Mug Shot to Surveillance Society
Jonathan Finn
University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London
The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges funds contributed to the publication of this book from the Dean of Arts Office and the Office of the Vice-President: Academic, Wilfrid Laurier University. Chapter 2 was previously published as “Photographing Fingerprints,” Surveillance and Society 3, no. 1 (2005): 21–44; reprinted with permission of the editors of Surveillance and Society. Chapter 5 was previously published as “Potential Threats and Potential Criminals: Data Collection in the National Security Entry–Exit Registration System,” in Global Surveillance and Policing: Borders, Security, Identity, ed. Elia Zureik and Mark B. Salter, 139–56 (Devon, U.K., and Portland, Ore.: Willan Publishing, 2005); reprinted with permission of Willan Publishing. Copyright 2009 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Finn, Jonathan M. (Jonathan Mathew), 1972– Capturing the criminal image : from mug shot to surveillance society / Jonathan Finn. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8166-5069-9 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8166-5070-5 (pb : alk. paper) 1. Legal photography. 2. Criminals—Identification. I. Title. HV6071.F46 2009 363.25'8—dc22 2009022445 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
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Contents
Introduction: Constructing the Criminal in North America 1. Picturing the Criminal: Photography and Criminality in the Nineteenth Century
vii
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2. Photographing Fingerprints: Data, Evidence, and Latent Identification
31
3. The Control of Inscriptions: Standa