What does it say about a person if they are smiling in a mug shot?
by 
Sheriff Raff -Answerhag
ANSWERS: 5
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They are clueless that they are going to do some hard time.
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That they do no care. Have no concience.
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Depends on what they did. remember the old saying about true friends, the ones who bail you out vs. the one in the cell next to you saying "damn that was fun?" Maybe they did something slightly illegal and fun.
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I love mug shots and study them often. There are several possibilities for people who smile: 1) They are drunk or on drugs. Sometimes you'll even see mug shots where a cop has to literally hold the person's head up so the picture can be taken. 2) The crime itself is so ridiculous or petty, the person can't help but laugh. For example, in some states oral sex or anal sex is considered a "crime against nature". Bizarrely, if you are caught doing such a thing, you can be charged and forced to join a sex offender registry. I have seen sex offender mug shots for such charges, and inevitably the people are laughing at how stupid the whole process is. It's quite weird to be looking through sex crime mug shots of dour, miserable people -- and then come across someone laughing like a nut. What's more common is people who cry or look angry in mug shots. The Smoking Gun has a weekly display of mug shots, and they inevitably show shots of attractive young women who have been crying.
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Ever since I've seen your avatar, I have this feeling that I've seen it somewhere else before. I can't quite recall exactly where, but sometimes when I have to wait in line at the Post Office... Well I'm not really educated in mug shot photograph interpretation, but IMHO, NikMaack covers the vast bulk of smilers. I'd also throw in people with an odd occurrence of irony, or any of the other things that make most people laugh or smile. I just think that these others are in the minority.
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