Purpose

Criminal records are used by various organizations to determine trustworthiness of an individual. Parties who work with children, money and highly sensitive material are some of the societal organizations that check criminal records.

Contents

Criminal records contain important information about a person's past criminal offenses and physical characteristics. The records also list places were jail time was served (if any), location of crimes and victims' names in the crimes. They may also include any other kind of offense that an individual may have been charged with.

FBI

The Federal Bureau of Investigation manages criminal intelligence information in America. They have records of an individual's past crimes stored in an electronic federal database. These databases can be shared across jurisdictions and even internationally.

Interpol

Interpol is an international criminal police organization that allows law-enforcement agencies from various countries to work together to stop crime and criminals on a global scale. One of the ways that they carry out this mission is through the exchange of criminal records. Many criminal records can be accessed by Interpol members after they have been placed in a member country's data criminal system.

Acts

The Freedom of Information Act is very important legislation that allows an individual to access federal agency records or information. The Privacy Act controls how information is gathered and used against an individual. These acts are important when it comes to accessing, compiling and using information for criminal records.

Source:

FBI Identification Record Request

FBI's FOIA/Privacy Website

USA.gov

Resource:

Online Criminal Records