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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/jabask on 2023-08-25 07:01:46+00:00.

With the release of Donald Trump’s mugshot taken at Fulton County Jail in Atlanta today, I was surprised — maybe even a little disappointed — to realize that it didn’t fit the image of a mugshot in the popular imagination, namely that it didn’t feature lines in the background to indicate height, and didn’t have the subject holding a plate with his name and booking information on it.

Googling for mugshots in various American cities, I now realize that the practice of these elements has all but vanished entirely from the “genre” of mugshots, and that these photos now mostly feature blank backgrounds of gray or white walls, with the subject’s name absent from the photo.

Is there a technological or social explanation for the change?