"what am i looking at" ... in reference to criminal charges...

[joko]

where does this come from?

people almost always phrase their question this way on here...they rarely say 'whats my sentence' or 'what will i get', or whats my punishment etc

and just wondered why? is it written somewhere or just a turn of phrase thats stuck?

cheers

[jno]

it usually seems to involve an amount of something. "If I buy a new car I'm looking at a price tag of £20,000." "If you want to be a doctor, you're looking at five years' study."

Don't know where it comes from, though.

[Quizmonster]

To 'look' has meant to expect or anticipate since the 1500s and that is clearly the meaning here. However, the addition of 'at' in this sense is much more recent. It could have started in one particular dialect...London?...and simply caught on more widely over time.