43 Times Celebs Had Their Mugshot Taken After Being Arrested

Celebrities – they're just like us. Except for the millions of dollars in their bank accounts, a criminal record has minimal to no effect on their employment opportunities. That's what most of us think, at least, right? In reality, things might be a bit different. Being famous might actually hinder your chances of getting out of a speeding ticket or a court sentence.

It's interesting that the data shows that celebrities actually have a 12.1% increased chance of getting convicted than non-celebrities. This statistic comes from a 2011 study by a Texan professor of criminal justice, Bruce A. Carroll. He examined 303 celebrity verdicts from 1998 to 2010 and found that non-famous people might sometimes have it easier in the justice system.

Some of the celebrities in this list have been arrested several times, like Lindsay Lohan and Robert Downey Jr. Yet, some famous people have many more arrests under their belts and have not made it to this list. And some of them might surprise you, as they're not frequent faces on the tabloids' front pages.

Actor Martin Sheen, for one, probably has the record for the most arrests of any Hollywood star. Sheen has been arrested 66 times in total, but not for DUIs, speeding, or anything of the sort. All of his arrests have been because of protesting: in 1986, he was arrested for civil disobedience while protesting Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" initiative. In 2007, he was caught trespassing on a nuclear test facility in Nevada.

During Martin's speech in 2009 at Oxford University, human rights activist Craig Kielburger pointed out that Sheen has "a rap sheet almost as long as his list of film credits."

Another famous person with an impressive sheet of arrests is the English musician and co-frontman of The Libertines, Pete Doherty. With a "mere" 26 arrests, he's well behind Martin Sheen, but the reasons for his arrests aren't as noble as Sheen's. Doherty has been caught by the police multiple times for possession and use of illegal substances. In a 2022 interview with NME, Doherty claimed to have been sober since 2019. Let's hope no more arrests are in his future!

Some American rappers also have pretty impressive rap sheets. Rapper DMX, for example, has been to jail more than 30 times for offenses such as firearm possession, animal cruelty, tax evasion, and violence. Snoop Dogg has been arrested at least eight times, mostly during his teenage and young adult years. Rapper T.I. has also had at least seven arrests under his name, mostly due to owning a firearm.

You might ask yourself why cops even take mugshots of famous people. It's not like they won't be able to recognize and identify them without a photo accompanying their personal record. In general, mugshots are taken to make it easier for victims, prosecutors, and the public to identify perpetrators. Typically, there are two photographs taken: one front view and another of a person's side profile.

Sometimes, people smile in their mugshots. You'll see that in this list, for example, in Justin Bieber's mugshot. Experts say that it happens increasingly more often, and some possible reasons might be inebriation, being disoriented, or mental illness.

"Many times they're smiling because [while] we think we know it all, they know we only know part of the story," a member of Tennessee's Alcatraz East Crime Museum's Board of Experts, Wyndell C. Watkins Sr., explained. "And sometimes they smile to get notoriety."

Indeed, some notorious criminals back in the day were smirking in their mugshots. That includes John Dillinger, a Depression-era gangster, as well as the infamous crime boss Al Capone.

"A lot of times when we catch people doing things, that's not the first time they've done it," Watkins added. "So I would think that's part of the message that they are trying to convey to the public."