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Perform a Criminal Check Online

By doing a criminal background check online, you can check criminal records instantly.

Criminal check services are like X-ray vision. They allow you to see at a glance things that would otherwise be hidden from view. For that reason, a criminal background check is an important people search tool for anyone who wants to research an individual in his or her family, neighborhood or workplace.

In fact, because a criminal history check can unearth any number of facts about a person's past, it's critical for screening people who work in or near your home and business. For instance, you can:

1. Use a criminal check to screen employees for a history of theft.

2. Use a criminal check to screen babysitters for a history of child abuse.

3. Use a criminal check to screen potential spouses for a history of domestic violence.

4. Use a criminal check to screen potential business partners for a history of fraud.

5. Use a criminal check to screen tenants for a history of vandalism.

6. Use a criminal check to screen neighbors for arrest warrants.

Criminal Check Tools and Techniques

If you need to check criminal records, use these “how-to” strategies for doing a criminal background check:

• Start your criminal check with a people search

In order to make your criminal check as accurate and as effective as possible, you'll want to start with some important personal information, such as name, birthday or—best of all—Social Security Number, as many criminal check services require this information for doing a criminal history check.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: If you're missing important information with which to do a criminal background check, you can probably find it by doing a standard people search at Records.com.

• Beef up your criminal check with credit, driving records

If a people search doesn't give you the information you need to check criminal records, chances are good that credit reports and DMV records will.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: Under federal law, only certain people and organizations can access your credit history for use in a criminal background check or for any other purpose. Among those people are creditors, employers, insurers and government agencies that are reviewing your credit history for licensing or benefit purposes. Provided that you get written consent from the individual you're checking, however, you can still do a credit check as part of your criminal check with one of the nation's three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Driving records are much easier to obtain, as they're typically public domain. To get them for use in your criminal check, contact the appropriate DMV; a list of state departments is available online courtesy of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

• Cover all your bases with a state-by-state criminal check

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

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: For a listing of state courts from which you can obtain state criminal records for use in your criminal check, consult the National Center for State Courts.

• Don't forget to search federal records in your criminal check

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 check should therefore include federal criminal records.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: For federal criminal records from federal courts, include 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—in your criminal background check.

• Strengthen your criminal check by also searching civil records

A comprehensive criminal background check should include not only criminal records, but also civil court records, including records related to divorces, bankruptcies, business disputes, civil lawsuits, etc.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: To learn how to access bankruptcy records and other civil court records for use in your criminal history check, consult the National Archives.

• Avoid missteps by keeping your criminal check legal

Although anyone can check criminal records for use in a criminal background check, under federal and state law not everyone can actually use those records to evaluate people—for employment, for instance.

PeopleSearch.info Recommends: Because laws vary by state, you should consult an attorney before doing a criminal check on someone that you wish to hire in your home or business. In the meantime, however, you can find criminal background check resources online at Business.gov.

Criminal Check Tips and Tactics

• Because there is no single national database through which to do a quick and comprehensive criminal check—instead, there are multiple state and federal databases—it pays to hire a paid criminal check service that can do the legwork for you.

• Although you once needed the services of a private detective in order to do a criminal check, anyone can now do a criminal background check thanks to the proliferation of online criminal check services, which are convenient and affordable.

• If you check criminal records, you'll find that they include: identification, including name and birth date; contact information, including address and phone number; information on past convictions; information about arrests and warrants; information about legal status; and information about incarcerations.

• Because individuals are unlikely to voluntarily disclosure their criminal history, a criminal background check is useful tool with which to learn the truth about someone's past.

•  If you're applying for a new job, planning to adopt children, applying for a small business loan or going to court over a lawsuit or other dispute, it's a good idea to do a criminal check on yourself so that you know what "dirt" is out there for folks to dig up on you. Plus, if you do a preemptive criminal history check on yourself, you'll have an opportunity to correct errors or perhaps even expunge some items from your record.

• If you're wondering what the significance of a criminal check is, consider this: Having a criminal record may impact your ability to vote, to buy firearms and to get some jobs in certain fields.

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