At the beginning of the twentieth century, criminals, both alleged and convicted, were routinely photographed and fingerprinted-and these visual representations of their criminal nature were archived for possible future use. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a plethora of new tools-biometrics, DNA analysis, digital imagery, and computer databases-similarly provide new ways for representing the criminal. Capturing the Criminal Image traces how the act of representing-and watching-is central to modern law enforcement.