'The new Bedlam: a legal and ethical analysis of commercial mug shot websites' by Jennifer L. Lanterman and Catherine A. Houk in (2022) 32(2) Ethics and Behaviour 178-193 comments
Legal and ethical concerns have been raised since the inception of the commercial mug shot website industry in the United States. These issues include the violation of the presumption of innocence, privacy interests, humiliation, extortion, and sensationalizing crime. These websites lend comparison to Bedlam asylum, which allowed visitors to mock and humiliate the patients. The popularity of these websites renders it essential that the legality and ethics of these websites be reevaluated. The deontological and utilitarian perspectives offer converging assessments regarding the need to regulate the industry and to modify the practices of law enforcement agencies and news organizations.
The authors state
The popularity of commercial mug shot websites in the United States presents legal and ethical issues. Internet search tools are continually advancing and allowing users to easily access an exceptionally large amount of personal information about people without their consent and to use it to generate profit. Mug shots of individuals who have been arrested are easy to find using Internet search engines, which obtain information from a host of government and commercial websites dedicated to posting the facial images of people who have been arrested. Commercial websites acquire these mug shots from law enforcement agencies that post their mug shots in online databases. These commercial websites generate a profit through click-related advertisements and by charging arrestees to have their mug shots removed from the sites in some jurisdictions (Batchelder, 2014).
Commercial mug shot websites present major concerns related to public information laws and individual rights and protections. The main ethical issue presented by commercial mug shot websites is whether the republication of mug shots serves a legitimate public interest or if the consequences are more harmful than beneficial to everyone involved. To answer this question, the purpose commercial mug shot websites serve in practice must be evaluated, and the public interest must be weighed against the interest of individual rights and protections. The arguments in favor of the continued operation of commercial mug shot websites, include public interest and safety, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state-level public records laws, and First Amendment protections. The arguments against commercial mug shot websites include infringement on the presumption of innocence, privacy interests, humiliation, extortion, and sensationalizing crime.
