Although crime rates have declined year-on-year in the US, gun violence, burglary, financial scams, rape, and the like continue to worry the majority of Americans.
This hardly comes as a surprise when you look at key statistics. Currently, there are more than 795,000 sex offenders registered at a state level, and this figure has steadily grown over recent years. Scam data looks equally bleak. Last year, Americans lost over $10 billion to fraud—a 14% jump from 2022.
Needless to say, knowing who you are dealing with during your daily interactions is crucial for your safety. Whether you are interviewing a new roommate or concerned about a new neighbor, digging a little deeper into someone’s background to check if they have a criminal record could go a long way in protecting you from unnecessary trouble. In this article, we explain the types of information you can find and how you can go about it.
What Can a Criminal Background Check Uncover?
Records of a person’s criminal past can include arrests, warrants, lawsuits, convictions, and a variety of other details.
These can relate to simple misdemeanors, such as traffic violations, as well as serious felonies like burglary, arson, extortion, child pornography, sexual assault, fraud, cybercrime, and murder.
Such records are compiled by government agencies at federal, state, and local levels. Based on state regulations, many are made available to the public for transparency, information, and safety purposes.
However, certain details, such as race, religion, and genetic information, are usually withheld, mostly to prevent discrimination.
Expunged or sealed records are not disclosed, either. Expungement results in the complete removal of records. Sealing, on the other hand, prevents public disclosure of information, although details will still be available for law enforcement. How these are determined and treated will again vary between states.
Getting your hands on publicly accessible criminal histories is not always easy unless you are a prosecutor or law enforcement officer.
Next, we take a look at how you can make this process easier and more effortless.
Top Ways to Look Up Criminal Records
You may need to look into a person’s background for traces of unlawful activities for various reasons—from identity verification to security clearance and hiring.
Depending on the purpose and the type of information you are after, there are several methods you can use to discover if someone has a criminal past.
Contact Law Enforcement
Local police stations maintain records of felonies, misdemeanors, and complaints they have overseen. They also have access to state and federal databases.
While not all this information is readily disclosed to the public, you can receive certain details, provided you have a valid reason.
Many will require a formal request, together with your personal details and reasons for accessing information. There could also be a fee for providing records.
Ask the Local Court Clerk
Courthouses keep records of all cases filed and tried at their premises, which they often share with the public. Fortunately, most of them are digitized and available online.
So, check whether you can access the respective state or county court databases on their website.
If not, visit the court clerk and submit an official request. To speed up the process, be prepared to provide additional information, like a social security number or date of birth, on top of the relevant person’s first and last name.
Visit the PACER Website
Public Access to Court Electronic Records is a national electronic database of records compiled by federal courts. It currently has over 1 billion documents, making it an invaluable source for finding criminal information.
You can search the site by court or national index. However, you must register for an account first.
Searches also involve a fee. PACER charges $0.10 per page and $2.40 per audio file. Fee exemptions are provided in certain instances, such as when conducting academic research.
Browse the National Sex Offender Registry
The National Sex Offender Public Website, or NSOPW, is a database of registered sex offenders from across the US.
It is overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice, and the site’s search services are offered free of charge.
You can search the NSOPW database by name and location. The records it produces typically include the first and last name, aliases, photos, age, height, weight, and other recognizable details of offenders. You can also find information about the crime, convicted county, registering agency, and registration ending date.
Check Online With a Search Engine
When you want to discover someone’s criminal activities, Google and other search engines are always a quick solution.
Unlike government websites, these platforms can access a variety of public sources for details, from news sites to social media. So, if a person’s name is associated with a crime, search engines can likely help you find it.
To discover information, try searching for the person’s first and last name. Depending on what the platform lists on its SERPs, you can further refine the results by adding other personal information and terms like “felonies”, and “court cases”.
Use a People Search Platform
These search engines specialize in finding people records, and they are different to the regular search sites in several ways.
To begin with, they verify information for accuracy and relevance. And instead of links to possible keyword matches, they provide compiled reports of individuals, saving you a ton of time.
The best part is, these reports will include various useful personal information in addition to criminal records. It can range from a person’s contact details and address history to relatives and associates.
But keep in mind that detailed reports are only available at a fee. Besides, you can’t use people search platforms for employment screening.
In Conclusion
When you want to find out whether someone has a criminal record, there are several methods you can follow to access information with minimum hassle.
The local police department and courthouse are excellent places to start your search. However, you must first identify the area a potential crime or lawsuit has taken place.
To minimize legwork, you can turn to digitized federal databases, especially the PACER website and NSOPW.
Search engines are best for finding information from independent sources, like social media and news sites. People search platforms can scan multiple public sources and databases, too. But they can get you verified records compiled into a single report.
An important point to note, however, is that there are applicable laws that determine the type of information you can access and how and where you can get it from. So, familiarizing yourself with the local regulations is important before you set about looking for criminal records.
