5/07/2014

Shaming people for crimes: Websites showing people's mugshots

The cost of committing crime for certain people may have gone up.  Some people can't be shamed, but for others (and we can guess who that might be), the cost of committing crime just went up.  I am not saying that this is good, just discussing the potential impact.  From Fox News:
Jaclyn Lardie did what many do when looking for a job: she Googled her name to see what a prospective employer would find. The search results devastated her. 
At the top of the page was an old photo from a night she'd rather forget -- a college-era mugshot from an underage drinking bust. Lardie was never convicted and had put the incident behind her. But commercial mugshot websites pounced on her photo and published it online, demanding a fee to remove it. 
"I was hugely surprised. My heart sank," Lardie said. "I felt like I was being unfairly painted as a criminal." 
With no options, she paid the fee, only to see her mugshot pop up on another site. That's when she realized she couldn't win this battle. Profiting from shame is the business model for mugshot websites. 
"I personally believe it's a legalized form of blackmail," said Lardie, whose photo now resides on Mugshots.com under her maiden name. The website charges $399 for removal. . . .

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