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Find Criminal Records Fast

Search criminal records online in order to do a quick and convenient public criminal records check.

Criminal records can speak volumes about an individual. After all, you can't judge a book by its cover, nor can you judge a person by his or her outward appearance. For that reason, criminal records are invaluable tools. They allow you to dig beneath a person's surface in order to discover the personal history that lies beneath.

A critical part of any background check, criminal records are a preemptive measure with which to judge a person's character. With the proper consent, employers may therefore check criminal records in order to evaluate employees, landlords in order to screen tenants and consumers in order to monitor their lives for evidence of identity theft. The possibilities are endless, as a criminal records check will turn up all sorts of information. For instance:

Criminal records include identification and contact information, including name, age, address, etc.
Criminal records include information on past convictions.
Criminal records include information about arrests.
Criminal records include individuals' legal status.
Criminal records include information about incarcerations.
Criminal records include information about outstanding warrants.
Criminal records include information with which to identify and monitor sex offenders.

Criminal Records Tools and Techniques

If you need to search criminal records, use these “how-to” strategies for doing a criminal records search and performing a public criminal records check:

Do a state criminal records search

Under the U.S. constitution, most laws fall under the jurisdiction of individual states. If you want to search criminal records, it's therefore important that you include in your criminal records search records from any state where your subject lives or has previously lived.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: Because criminal records laws vary by state, be sure to familiarize yourself with legal dos and don'ts before you perform a criminal records check. The nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press publishes a helpful "Open Government Guide" that includes information on all 50 states' public records laws.

Search federal criminal records

Although most crimes are within the states' jurisdiction, many crimes—including, for example, crimes related to national security, the military, the Post Office and federal taxes, as well as interstate commerce, including crimes involving the telephone, television, trucking, U.S. mail and air travel—are prosecuted by the federal government. Your criminal records search should therefore include not only state public criminal records, but also federal criminal records.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: The best place to start a federal criminal records search is with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which currently has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal law.

Search court records for public criminal records

If someone has been accused of a crime—but not convicted—most criminal records won't say so. Criminal court records, however, will, assuming that he or she appeared in court to hear the charges against them.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: If you want to check criminal records, you'll want to make sure that your criminal records search encompasses both state criminal court records and federal criminal court records. For a listing of state courts from which you can obtain state criminal court records, consult the National Center for State Courts. For federal criminal records from federal courts, use PACER, a government-sponsored service that provides access to criminal court records from federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index.

Include prisons when you search criminal records

Chances are good that if someone has a criminal history, he or she has served some type of prison sentence or probation. Prison records are therefore an important part of any public criminal records check.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: Want to know if someone's been in prison? Include the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Inmate Locator in your public criminal records search.

Find sex offenders with a criminal records check

Because sex offenders must register with the communities they live in, they're easier to find, track and research than other criminals. In fact, you don't need to do a full-fledged criminal records search in order to find out if someone is a sex offender; instead, you can go straight to federal, state and local registries.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: To locate sex offenders in your area, consult the National Sex Offender Public Website, which is coordinated by the U.S. Department of Justice and includes public criminal records with which to obtain information about sex offenders nationwide.

Criminal Records Tips and Tactics

Often, you must have personal information—such as a Social Security Number—or permission in order to access public criminal records. There are typically no restrictions, however, on accessing your own criminal records. In fact, it's a good idea to do a criminal records check on yourself in order to search your records for evidence of identity theft.
If you're thinking about doing a free criminal records check, think again. When doing a free background check, criminal records are often unreliable and incomplete because they lack the resources to access complete and comprehensive criminal records databases.
Criminal records may be difficult to locate if the individual you're searching has moved around a lot or has a criminal history in multiple locations. If that's the case, consider doing a people search or credit check in order to obtain a person's address history before conducting a criminal records search on them.
If you're relying on a criminal records search in order to screen an employee, tenant or other individual, you may want to consider supplementing it with a drug screening. Criminal records won't likely include drug use unless the individual has been charged with a drug-related crime.
When it comes to criminal records, age matters—depending on your intent. Employers in some states, for instance, may not be able to access or consider public criminal records as part of an employment check if those public criminal records go back a certain number of years.
Although you can access public criminal records online, you may wish to conduct a criminal records check offline, too, as courts and law enforcement agencies aren't always able to digitize criminal records quickly or completely. An online criminal records search may therefore be incomplete.
Not all criminal records are public criminal records. Typically, it's up to the judge in a criminal case to decide whether or not the criminal records in that case will be opened or sealed. Often, to protect parties involved with a case—particularly juveniles or first-time offenders—judges seal otherwise public criminal records for the purpose of safety and privacy.

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