A verisimilitude of pessimism: Scottish prisoner mug-shots, 1883–1927

Abstract

This paper examines the stigmatisation of identity. Historic prisoner mug shots taken in two Scottish prisons during the late Victorian period constitute a part of archival base of this study from which generalisations to the contemporary world are conjectured. Cultural criminologists propose crime is normatively framed. Mug shots belong with a larger symbolism within a discourse of crime and culture. This article examines the scientific and cultural environs within which a dangerous semiotic of the mug shot image originated. The ‘gaze’ of the mug shot, it is argued, suffers from class stigmata circulating elite Victorian scientific laboratories and drawing-rooms. Criminal anthropology, it is argued, constructed visual sources as tools for reaching certainty, but in this project generated processes of social closure. Morphological deviations from the norm defined the ‘criminal body’.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to Teresa Knight for editorial support and to the reviewers for their informed and very constructive critique.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

[1] Identification of Habitual Criminals, Report of a Committee Appointed by the Secretary of State- Best Means Available for Identifying Habitual Criminals. London: HMSO. 1894.

[2] Annual Report: The Prison Commission for Scotland, 1900. Glasgow: HMSO.

[3] Identification of Habitual Criminals, Report of a Committee Appointed by the Secretary of State- Best Means Available for Identifying Habitual Criminals. London: HMSO. 1894.

[4] For Purposes of Identification, The American Lawyer, October 1905, 13, 10. P. 449.

[5] The Scotsman 1860–1920. Pro-quest Historical Newspapers, August 29^th, 1891, p. 8.

[6] Identification of Habitual Criminals, Report of a Committee Appointed by the Secretary of State – Best Means Available for Identifying Habitual Criminals: London: HMSO 1894. 

[7] Order by Secretary of State Prison at Barlinnie to be Legal Place of Detention for Criminal Prisoners, August 1882. House of Commons Papers.

[8] Prisons (Scotland) Committee. London: HMSO. 1900. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.

[9] Annual Report: The Prison Commission for Scotland, 1900. Glasgow: HMSO.

[10] Annual Report: The Prison Commission for Scotland, 1900. Glasgow: HMSO.

[11] Identification of Habitual Criminals, Report of a Committee Appointed by the Secretary of State- Best Means Available for Identifying Habitual Criminals. London: HMSO. 1894.

[12] Identification of Habitual Criminals, Report of a Committee Appointed by the Secretary of State- Best Means Available for Identifying Habitual Criminals. London: HMSO. 1894.

[13] The Slater Case, The Scotsman, 15 October 1912, p. 9.

[14] Oscar Slater: A Visit to Peterhead, The Scotsman, 15th July,1929, p. 7.

[15] Acknowledgement for this point to anonymous reviewer of the paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chris HOLLIGAN

Chris Holligan publishes qualitative studies in sociology, criminology and education. His doctorate is from the University of St. Andrews. He holds degrees and diplomas in psychology, sociology, literature and philosophy from the University of York, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. His more recent research interests include visual sociology, crime history, prison life, drug markets and violent crime. He has lectured in Hong Kong, China, Jordan and more recently at Yale. He is currently completing a study about disability and criminal assault in nineteenth century Scotland with Elizabeth Foyster, Clare College, Cambridge.

Dev MAITRA

Dev Maitra is a criminologist and ethnographer, currently studying for a PhD at Cambridge University. He holds degrees from the Universities of Bristol (LL.B. Hons) and Cambridge (M.Phil), and his research interests include prison gangs, youth street gangs, organised crime and transnational drug-dealing networks. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn and is a non-practising barrister.