Top Six Tips:

1. It is important that you know what a criminal record is before you start searching them. This will ensure that you know what you can and cannot look for and will save you a lot of headaches. A criminal record is simple put, a persons criminal past. Some of the information included in a criminal record will vary between depending on the search you are conducting and also between states and what their jurisdictions are within each different county.

2. Know the persons first and last name of the record you are trying to obtain. If you only know the first or last name you could run into a problem with your search; especially if they have a common name. By having a first and last name, you will be able to cut down on the list of people you will have to sort through while trying to find the person you are looking for.

3. Details, details, details. The more details you know about a person the easier your search will go. If you know things such as; first and last name, birth date, age, gender, where they live and where they work, you will have much more simple search and will also be able to find more details about a person.
4. Know what you are looking for. If you want to know if a person is on the sex offendars list, than all you need to do is go to the national sex offenders list and your search will be simple and straight forward. If you wish to know a persons driving history, your search may be a bit tougher and may require you to more leg work. By knowing exactly what you are looking for, it will elimitate, or guide you, to the correct website or agency.

5. Try online searches first. Online searches often produce more than enough information for what you are trying to obtain. Online searches are quick, can be done anywhere at anytime and most of them are FREE! If you are unsure on how to get started, all you need to do is go to a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo, and type in “criminal background search.” A list will generate for you and all you need to do is visit some of the suggested websites and use the one that you feel most comfortable with and that will best fill your needs. Please note that online searches are usually only preliminary searches and may not reveal all of the information that you are looking for, but this does not mean the information you are trying to gather is not out there and may still be a matter of public record and require you to fo further research.

6. If online searches are not working for you and you cannot find what you desire, than there are a number of agencies that can help you.

• Local court houses where the case was heard

• County clerks office

• Local and state police departments

• The FBI

• Or Private investigators.

HOW TO SEARCH FOR A CRIMINAL RECORD BY NAME:

1. You will first want to obtain as much information about the individual to be checked as possible. Some of the items you will need are; first and last name of the individual, state in which they reside, date of birth and a social security number will also be helpful in your search.

2. Go to a search engine such as USSearch.com, PeopleDate or CriminalWatchDog – each of these search engines will have a criminal records tab and you can then enter this information that you have gathered into that location.

3. You will need to sort through the list of names and addresses that appear.If a name appears on the list, it means that there is criminal-history information available for that person. Likewise, if a name does not appear, it means that the search found no criminal record for that person.

4. Check your information against the information that is available to you. Just because a similar name showed up on the records list does not mean that you have found criminal records for the correct individual, and the records may be of an individual with a similar name and/or residential background.

5. Consider your own personal specific needs. A paid report will generally provide more information such as; sexual offenses, criminal arrests and even criminal and civil judgments. You can also obtain a more in-depth physical address history and possibly other information, such as divorce and marriage records.

6. You can expect to pay anywhere from about $15.00 for a rather simple report and up to $99.95, or more, for a highly detailed history. You must also remember that not all states provide access to all areas of records. Some states do not make criminal or other records available to private citizens, so you may not be able to obtain all of the information you are searching for. You will also need to check your state’s regulations to see if a waiver is required for information.

7. Since each state does operate differently you can look into individual state resources. Some states may provide certain records free of charge.

TIPS AND WARNINGS:

You should try and get a feel for doing searches before using them for any real purpose. A good way to do this is by searching yourself in the residential records or by looking for friends and relatives records. By finding out what information may be available and previously spotting possible errors in searching and reporting – this will save you a lot of time, hassle and even money,

Do not make assumptions without very detailed information. Records may be improperly assigned to an individual with actually has no criminal history, due to similar name, residents, age, or just human error. Residential or other information can be erroneous as well.

WHAT IS A BACKGROUND CHECK?

A background check is an approach to finding information about someone, or yourself, that may not be readily available. Both Individuals and organizations choose to carry out background checks fora large variety of reasons. Background checks are often administered through third party institutions and are used to provide a more accurate picture of an individual’s character based upon past actions and records. Background checks also can reveal information about an individual’s professional, financial, criminal, and even public history and can include everything from speeding tickets, to bankruptcy to time spent in jail, o employment history.

HOW TO GET A CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK ON YOURSELF:

• The first thing that you are going to want to do is to assemble all of the information about yourself that you have no committed to memory, such as past arrests details, social security number, etc. Have everything available to give to the agency you will be getting the information from. If you want or need an official record that is stamped with the state’s or county’s official seal, you will have to obtain the background yourself and not through an online service.

• You will then want to contact your local agencies. The best source of obtaining a complete and comprehensive criminal background check is from the Department of Justice for your state. If you do happen to have a criminal record in various states, you will need to contact each of state’s Department of Justice. Another option is for you to go to the court where yours case(s) went to trial or was heard. For example, if your criminal record is in San Diego, California, contact the California Department of Justice and the specific courthouse in San Diego where your case went to court. If you do have a number of assorted cases throughout the state, the Department of Justice will have all of that information.

• Each agency does have different procedures, so you will need to ensure that you follow each agency’s procedure to get the information that you are looking for. You might have to submit to fingerprinting – live-scan fingerprinting is now readily available at multiple locations in each state, and that state’s Department of Justice can give you a list of locations. Once the state agency receives your fingerprints and other vital information to your case, they will cross-reference the state’s data base to check for any record that comes up when your name is run. You will have to pay a fee for getting your record and for the fingerprinting, usually the fee is $25.

• You will then need to contact the court. If for some reason the Department of Justice does not have the information you are looking for, you can then contact the records department of the court where your case or cases were decided. Sometimes the state does not have the information because the court has not provided it to them. You will need your name, birthdate and valid identification and then the court will let you copy documents from the court file. Bring money and change to pay for the copies. If you need an offical copy of something, expect to pay at least $15 per copy.

Precautions

• Do not spend your time or the money to run a background check unless you are required to for work, by law or for some other reason. If you are merely trying to satisfy your curiosity, you can run an online check for free, although the online checks are not as in-depth as those that are run by the court systems, so you may not obtain all pertinent information.

• Make sure all of your personal information is correct or you may end up with someone else’s criminal record.

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO SEARCH FOR CRIMINAL RECORDS?

There are various reasons why one would wish to examine another person’s criminal background. Parents, those involved in the academic community, employers, daycare facilities, nursing homes, landlords, victims of crimes, dating services, and others wish to explore whether or not an associate, employee or potential employee,spouse, babysitter, etc has a criminal record.

WAYS YOU CAN FIND CRIMINAL RECORDS:

There are a great variety of ways that a person can go about finding criminal records and the process may be easier, and cheaper, than you think.

• Online – There are multiple websites online that allow you to search people by using their name, age, gender and other details about that specific person. Most of these websites are 100% free and result in great deal of information in a cost efficient manner, that can be done from your own home.

• The Federal Bureau of Prisons – The FBP has a locator online that allows you to search any state prison in America and find out if your person of interest has been ordered to serve time in a Federal prison. This search will require a first and last name of a person, but is also 100% free of charge.

• National Sex Offendar Registary – All sex offenders are required by law to register of the national sex offendar registray list regardless of their crime and most people will remain on the list for 25 years to life. For this search you do not need a name of a person and can browse the registry list by name, region, and even age. This too is a free service provided to the public.

• Court House – Most counties in America have a court house where cases are heard on a daily basis. Since most records are available to the public, you can go into your local courthouse, or to where the crime you are interested was committed, and tell them what you are searching for. Most likely you will need to fill out the proper paperwork and be charged a fee around $25.

• Court houses should also have such public records as marriage and death certificates, also available to you for a fee.

• County Clerk – A lot of people may not be aware that their local county clerk has valuable information open to the general public for a very reasonable fee. You can obtain death certificates, birth certificates and other information all by going in and asking for them. There is a small fee attached to each item that you obtain and range form $5 to $20.

• Wondered if your potential or current employee has criminal history?

• Had trouble finding the right day car for your children and wanted to make sure that you were sending them someplace safe?

• Been suspicious about a person you were dating?

• Wondered if there were sex offenders in your neighborhood?

• Wondered if your children had gotten into more trouble than they had actually told you?

• Wanted to know what your own criminal history looked like?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, than we have some simple tips on how to conduct a quick and cost effective criminal background search.

WHAT RECORDS ARE AVAILABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC?

One would be surprised at all of the information that is readily available to the general public, and at little to no cost at all. There are a lot of resources and places that assist a person when they are searching for a criminal record, whether it their own criminal history, or that of another person. One of the easiest ways to obtain a criminal record is to check the internet. There are a pleathera of websites available to the average computer user and most of them are 100% free. A simple and easy way to start is by merely going to Google and typing in “free criminal background check.” A wide variety of websites will then be displayed and you will be able to click on them and find the one that will work best for you.

WHAT IS A FREE BACKGROUND CHECK?

A free background check is where a person obtains public records. These records could include anything from public criminal records, public employment records, public sex offender databases, divorce cases, death certificates, driving records and any kind of personal information of a person they may know, all devoid of paying any money. Most free searches are only preliminary searches and do not go as in-depth into a persons past and history, as if you were to hire a private investigator or pay a company to look into another persons criminal record. If you are only looking for obvious charges, such as sex offenders, than a free search is more than ample information. If, however, you are looking for further information, it may be a little more difficult to obtain and you may want to consider talking to an investigator or paying a company to gain access to these records for you.

OTHER WAYS TO OBTAIN A CRIMINAL RECORD:

The following is a partial list of some of the services offered both online and in person that you can use to help obtain information about your own criminal record or the record of another person.

• The national sex offendars registry list

• Local county clerks office

• Local court house where the case(s) were tried in court

• FBI website

• State police websites

• Corrections.com

• The United States Parole Commission

• The National Criminal Justice Reference Service

• My Crime Space

FREE CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK USING GOOGLE:

To begin all you need to do is start by Googling the person’s name of whom you wish to conduct a criminal background search on.

If you know the area the person lives in, their age, address, or any other information about them, this information will greatly help to narrow down your search and ensure that you find the correct person.

• EX: “Sally Jones, Detroit Michigan, Criminal Records”

• EX: “Sally Jones, Detroit Michigan, Public Marriage Records”

HOW CAN I DO AN ONLINE CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK?

There is a considerable amount of details and information available to the public such as; divorce records, death certificates and records, criminal court cases, speeding tickets, etc. If you can not get the information you are looking for by doing the public record search yourself on Google, than you are going to need to use a background check website instead.Online background check websites are very effective, efficient and also very affordable to use.

To begin all you need to do is go to a website such as CriminalPages.com or freebackgroundcheck.org. Both of these websites will give you an adequately compiled nationwide criminal records search record. Please note, that neither site is 100% full proof, nor does it cover every state in the search, but it is sufficient for a person who is looking to do a free online criminal history check and obtain information about themselves or other people. A considerable amount of counties, cities and states in the United States are now offering free background checks online resources for their residence to have the ability to check a person’s criminal history or prison record. By using the links in the cities online sites they will give you the necessary information that you are trying to obtain.

STILL NOT FINDING WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR?

• Get a Date of Birth – To do a more complete and accurate criminal background check on a person, especially if they have a common surname, it is very beneficial to have a birth date.

• Check the National Sex Offendary Registary – If your background check has come up with no results, than you can also check the national sex offendary resigstary for any pertainant information that they may have. All sex offenders are required to register in their state and this could be a valubale resource that is also free.

• Search Federal Inmate Records – Anyone can search the Federal Bureau of Prison’s Inmate records online for people who may have served time in a federal prison between the years of1982 until present day. This search requires does require a first and last name,however, you can also add an age to range to the search results which will narrow down the search greatly.

Criminal files have always been available to the public, but the magnitude of work and time involved in searching for the right records and in tracking down the appropriate agency often left one frustrated and leaving empty handed. However, that has recently changed with the emergence of electronic record keeping. In today’s society, criminal records are as close as your home office and can be searched for on any computer that has internet access. Criminal records have become almost immediately accessible with the help of the internet and the proper search tools. The instant availability of criminal records can help you gain access to an abundance of information about potential babysitters, employees and even neighbors with a simple click of the mouse. Due to the fact that criminal histories are treated as a matter of public record, in virtually every state, individuals can attain criminal records, for any reason – even if it is just out of personal curiousity.There are still a limited number of U.S. States that limit access to those people who do have certain criminal histories, but in general, a business or individual can get a hold of any government record they desire or need access to these records.

Once the criminal records are made available to the public, any individual who is interested in gaining access can then perform a basic search online and is able to find a considerable amount of information in a very short amount of time and with minimal effort. If the documents one is looking for are not associated with the online search, some sites will then offer a faster method of contacting the state and local governments in order to learn more about the criminal records that are trying to be obtained.

To search for a criminal record online there are only a few simple steps that you need to take:
1) Enter “Free Criminal Records Search” in a search engine such as Google or Yahoo
2) Enter your subject’s name and any other personal information that you may know about your subject.
3) A lost of search results will be displayed and you will need to sort through the results and until you find the desired person you are looking for.

Please note that the more personal information you have about someone, such as their address and phone number, the more likely you are to find information about your desired person.
There are great deal of criminal record databases available on the internet today, but not all will provide an absolute record or even fully accurate information. It can be very helpful to know the different fundamentals about what criminal records are comprised of and how they are compiled to know whether the information you find is precise. While there are occasional errors in the online system, nearly everybody does prefer the simple, convenient, and instant access of electronic records to the long, arduous process of hunting down and gathering information from various government departments.

WHAT IS A CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK?

A background check is the procedure of looking up and compiling criminal records of a particular individual.

USES FOR A FREE CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK:

• Criminal record background checks have become a common practice used by employers and have become a major part of our employment lives. In fact, numerous states are now requiring, by law, that any jobs that include dealing with the elderly, handicapped, sensitive financial or security information, and other higher profile jobs, automatically require the personnel applying for the job has to go through a background check prior to employment.

• To locate and track sexual offenders – all sex offenders are required to register online as a safety precausion for the neighborhoods in which they live in.

• To check military records and find out who has served in the military or not.

• To find out what companies or people have been sued or involved in legal action.

• People do perform criminal record background checks for a variety of different reasons, however, the number one reason seems to be for the assurance of security and well-being for themselves or their family members. It has been documented that a high amount of crimes that occur are indeed from repeat offenders

• With crime rates still rising in America, many people are using criminal background checks on a every day basis to check out anything that they may find suspicious.

WHAT IS A CRIMINAL BACKGROUND?

A criminal history is often referred to as a “rap sheet,” is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or military service. The process of responding to an Identification Record request is generally known as a criminal background check. Criminal records are in fact considered a matter of public record. What this means is that, by law, these records are available openly to view at anytime by any person that wishes to obtain them. You can gain access to public criminal records through many different avenues. Some of the approaches can include; government offices, security agencies, public record companies, and libraries. Many of these public records can also be obtained online through various websites. These websites can offer a person a wealth of information on people with very minimal effort and can be done in a swift and efficient manner. Performing a criminal background check is free and easy when done online. Although online background checks are free and can be done anywhere, they sometimes do not reveal all of the details a person is seeking. If you find yourself in this situation, than you simply need to contact a local court house or governmental office and they will be able to direct you as to what you need to do next. Do note, that this may require you to pay certain fees in order to obtain all of the information that you require to satisfy your needs.

When a person has been convicted of a crime within the United States, it then becomes a public event and matter of public record. Since the record of the crime is a public record anyone can go to a court clerk’s office, or other agency, and search the files for records of a certain person. The only exception to criminal records is for those convictions in which a judge has sealed them.

Until fairly recently, if a person was trying to find out if another person had a criminal record, the only way to discover these facts would have been to pay a visit to the clerks’ offices of every county in which you were trying to obtain records.However, with the invention of the internet,a person can now search an extensive list of databases online.

WHO SHOULD CONDUCT A CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK?

Anyone who has ever been suspicious of another person, an employer looking into a possible employee, a spouse, or a parent worried about sex offenders in their neighborhood, should conduct a criminal records check These checks will divulge a lot of information and in a short amount of time. In today’s society, a person can never be too safe, so if you are feeling uneasy about something, it is highly recommended that you perform a simple online criminal background search to help ease your mind or to satisfy your curiosity.

HOW TO DO DISCOVER ANOTHER PERSONS CRIMINAL HISTORY:

1. Gather as much information about the person you are trying to find a criminal background on. These things include, but are not limited too, their full name, age, gender, where they live, where they work, and their social security number.

2. Try to search for their records online – this is the fastest and easiest way to gather information on a person, but may not result in a detailed report. If you are not satified with the results your receive than you will need to continue your search. An important note is to ensure that you do more than “Google” a persons name. You will need to try various search engines and services.

3. If you are not satified with your online search than you may need to go into your local court house or clerks office and explain to them what you are looking for. They will be able to direct you to the proper channels and guide you through the process step by step.

4. If after working with the clerk or court house you are still not happy, than your only option remaining is to call a private investigator or another professional service. These agencies will have the resources and knowledge to be able to help you obtain what you are looking for.

WHAT IS A CRIMINAL RECORD?

A criminal record is a accounting of a person’s criminal history, almost always used by potential employers, lenders, etc. to analyze and determine their trustworthiness. Some of the information included in a criminal record does indeed vary between countries and even between jurisdictions within a country. In most cases it lists all non-expunged criminal offenses and may also account for traffic offenses like speeding and drunk-driving.

In some countries the record is limited to cases that have actually resulted in convictions (where the individual has pleaded guilty or been affirmed guilty by a legal system) while in other countries it may also included arrests, charges dismissed, charges pending and even charges of which the individual has been acquitted. The latter is often argued to be violation of human rights, as it works opposite to the presumption that innocence people will be discriminated against based on these charges and of unproven allegations.

HOW TO DO A CRIMINAL RECORD CHECK FOR FREE:

Obtaining a criminal background check for free is very simple and can easily be done by anyone online from anywhere. You do not need to know very much about the internet, or be tech savy, you simply need to follow the step by step instructions and you will have a wealth of information available to you in a short amount of time.

• The first thing that you need to do is get on the internet.

• Once on the internet you simply go to your prefered search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing. Etc.) and type in “free criminal background check” and press enter.

• A wide variety of results will be displayed and you can begin checking out the websites that are available. There will be various companies that can run a background check for free, so merely go with the one that you feel the most comfortable with and think is best suited for your situation and what you require.

• Most online services can perform a criminal backgroun check with just a persons first and last name. However, you should be advised that the more information you know about your subject, the better results you will find and the more specific your search will be. If you do know a person’s address, phone number, age, etc, these are all highly valuable details that will help your narrow your search and gain you the best results. As there are a wide variety of services on the web, you may want to search more than one and see what service you obtain the best results from.

USES FOR CRIMINAL RECORD BACKGROUND CHECKS:

• For employment reasons – to ensure you can trust the person you are hiring for your organization.

• For your childrens safety – you may want to run a background check on your children’s teacher, coaches, instructors and other people they are around daily.

• A person you are interested in dating.

• For sex offenders.

• General courisity.

There are a wide variety of reasons people run background checks and with crime rates still in the rise, a person can never been too safe. With such an easy, efficient, and effective way to help keep yourself and your family safe, it is no wonder so many people are using free online criminal background checks today.