Criminal Records – Court & Arrest Data Search

Search and view criminal records from anywhere

Criminal records are attached to a person’s criminal historical past. Keep in mind that the information that is gathered within a criminal record can be different within the jurisdictions within a country.

Within the United States, criminal records are updated and compiled by federal, state, and local levels of government agencies. This extensive guide will provide ways to search and view criminal records across the United States by accessing records with a first and last name. It will help anyone looking to build a background check on just about anyone.

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The most familiar agencies would be that of law enforcement. Within the local level you will have the following types of departments that would maintain criminal records:

• Sheriff’s offices
• Police departments

On the state level you would have the following agencies that could maintain criminal records:

• State Troopers
• State Police
• Highway Patrol
• Correctional agencies

This data is typically shared between networks as it is important to be able to access this data quickly at this level between agencies.  Records are usually available to the public and are searchable, as long as it’s not locked by law, or expunged from viewing  Criminal records have many important uses and purposes.  The most common use would be that of checking the criminal history of someone when applying for a new career. However, there are many other reasons to run a criminal record check.

The general public may want to know about a new potential love interest.  Security clearance or gaining access to passports is another reason a criminal check may be run on someone.  The reasons and list are long, and each person could have there unique reasons on why they would need or like to run a criminal record check.

Criminal Records by State

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The number is astonishing when you see it. According to the FBI in 2016 a violent crime occurred every 25.3 seconds.

Property crime occurred every 4.0 seconds.

What information can you find in criminal records?

Depending on what information is available, users searching for this data could find plenty of information within a criminal record report.  The process of gathering information begins at the time the suspect is arrested for a particular crime. The person is brought into the jail and fingerprinted and photographed.  All of this information is stored within his or her personnel file.  Because technology has advanced so much this data is almost always digitally recorded also.

Basic data that could be included within the criminal records file would be:

• Full name
• Date of birth
• Aliases
• Current Address
• Physical appearance: Tattoos, scars, unique markings
• Type of crime
• Fingerprint data
• Mugshot

What are some of the most Committed property Crimes within the United States?

Property Crime

Property Crime includes larceny-theft, burglary, motor vehicle theft and arson. What classifieds property crime is when there is taking of property or money, but there is no force or threat against a victim.  We include arson within this because it is the destruction of property.  In 2016 there were an estimated 7,919,035 property crimes that took place within the United States  The rate of property crime was estimated at 2,450.7 per 100,000 people.  Larceny-theft accounted for 71 percent of all property crime in the 2016 year.

Burglary

Burglary is when someone unlawfully enters a structure to commit a crime or theft. In order to be classified as burglary, there does not need to be any force involved to gain entrance.

There are three classifications for burglary:

• Forcible entry
• Unlawful entry
• Attempted forcible entry

In 2016 within the United States there were 1,515,096 burglaries.  Estimated number of burglary accounted for 19 percent of the number of total property crimes.  Residential properties accounted for 69.5 percent of all burglary offenses.

Larceny-Theft

Larceny-theft is defined as the act of leading or carrying away of property from the possession of another. The most common example of this would be theft of bicycles, shoplifting or stealing of any property not taken by force.  2016 showed there were about 5,638 thousand larceny-thefts in the United States.  The rate was 1,745 per 100 thousand people within the United States.  Larceny-thefts accounted for almost 71.2 percent of property crimes in 2016 alone.  The average amount of property taken was 999.00 per offense in 2016 that accounted for an estimated 5.6 billion dollars of loss to its victims nationwide.

Motor Vehicle

Motor Vehicle Theft is known as the attempt or theft of a motor vehicle.  Examples of a motor vehicle would be a truck, buses, scooters, snowmobiles, and automobiles.  Any self-propelled vehicle that runs on land and not on rails.  In 2016 there were an estimated 765,484 thefts of motor vehicles within the United States. This is 236.9 per 100,000 inhabitants.  This number increased by 7.4 percent in 2016 over 2015  There has been a ballpark figure of about 5.9 billion in lost motor vehicle dollars in 2016

What are some of the most Committed Violent Crimes within the United States?

Violent Crime is broken down into four offenses and is defined as an offense that involves force or threat.  In 2016 there were an estimated 1,248,185 violent crimes within the United States. There were an estimated 386.3 violent crimes per 100 thousand inhabitants in 2016.  Aggravated assaults accounted for 64.3 percent of violent crimes that were reported by law enforcement.

Murder

Murder is defined as the killing of one human being by another.  In 2016 there was an estimated number of murders that was 17,250 an increase of almost 8.6 percent from 2015 estimates.  There were 5.3 murders per 100 thousand people in 2016 across the United States.

Rape

Rape is defined as any penetration by a sex organ of another person without the consent of the victim.  Oral penetration is also considered rape without the victims consist.  In 2016 there were 95,730 rape reports to law enforcement. This is 4.9 percent higher than in 2015 estimates.

Robbery

Robbery is when someone tries to take anything of value from a person by force or violence.  There were around 332,198 robberies within the United States in 2016 this number increased by 1.2 percent from 2015  The robbery rate was 102.8 per 100 thousand people in the United States  In 2016 the average dollar value of property stolen was 1,400 for an estimated 465 million in losses.

Aggravated Assault

Defined as an unlawful attack by one human against another for the purpose to inflict bodily injury.  Typically this happens with the use of a weapon like a gun or a knife.  When someone combines aggravated assault and larceny-theft then the offense will be robbery.  803,007 was the estimated number of aggravated assault that happened within the United States in 2016

Aggravated assault in 2016 was 248.5 per 100 people.

Accessing Criminal History Data

Because criminal records are public once a person is convicted of a crime finding this data can be done easily.  Keep in mind that not all criminal records might be accessed by the general public.  Depending on who you are, and why you need these records, you could be denied access when searching courthouses or other public databases.

Government Agencies

Typically this group will not face much in terms of being denied when it comes to accessing public record data in the form of criminal records.  The story is a little different from non-Government agencies that may be looking to access someone’s criminal background.  Most of the time these agencies will need to get permission from the person to access and perform such data searches.  A good example is when you purchase a firearm in the United States. You must give you consent to the dealer to run a background check on you to purchase the firearm.  The dealer cannot run a background check on you without your consent.

General Public and criminal record checks

If the record is public, and keep in mind that some are not, the general public can access these records quite easily by visiting the local courthouse or law enforcement agency to access these records.

Are Sex Crimes considered public data?

Yes. Finding these records is extremely easy.  Every state will have a sex offender registry search that can be searched by a person’s name.  Because every state has slightly different regulations on who should appear on a sex offender registry list not everyone who commits’ a sex offense will be on the list.  Some states have tiers or categories and only the most serious of these sex crimes would make it on a public registry.

Time also plays a factor within each state. Some states only will make people with a sex crime appear on the public registry for a certain period of time before being removed.

Requesting Criminal Records

If the data you’re requesting is on yourself you should have no issues obtaining this data.  Here are ways to try and obtain criminal data on someone

County Courthouses

County courthouse through the clerk of courts.  Find your county courthouse and either contact them directly or try and search this data directly online through the official website.  A lot of times these courthouses will have an online search system.

Sheriff Departments

Try contacting the sheriff department that you believe the crime accord in.  The sheriff’s department could have access to separate records or even have access to other criminal records on a shared database.

State Police Department and Public Safety Department

Try searching for your state police department online. They could have access to criminal records you’re looking for.  Another search avenue you should try is the Department of Public Safety and the State Bureau of Investigation.  If you have the persons consent you can try the Freedom of Information Act website.  You will need their consent before getting any records. But if you have that, this is a good place to look.

In closing

Regardless of what the reason is that you or someone you know is looking for criminal records, there should be no reason with today’s technology not to be able to find these types of public data.  Remember, if you suspect someone might be hiding something run a public record check to be sure.  Public record data laws were put into place so the general public can find and view these types of documents.