If you made mistakes in your past and you don’t want just anyone to know about it, you might be wondering who can look into your criminal background record. When you have made mistakes and you have put in the effort to overcome them and move past them, you don’t want to have to rehash your mistakes again when someone new learns of them. With the prevalence of online criminal background checks today, you may be more concerned than you were in the past that someone new will find out about your criminal past.

Wondering exactly who can access your criminal background record? The fact of the matter is that just about anyone can access your record. If they have your name, your address, and your date of birth, chances are they will be able to get a lot of your criminal record in front of them in a matter of minutes. If someone even goes down to the court house and gives a name and a date of birth they may be able to access your court records.

The fact is that just about anyone can see your criminal record. The reason for this is that criminal records, with the exception of federal ones, are public record. This means that anyone can get a hold of your records and read through them, one conviction or charge at a time. Of course, in some areas there are laws that try to prevent just anyone from running such a background check, but because it is public record you are able to look at these records without actually breaking the law.

The good thing is that most resources charge to look up the criminal background record of another person. Most people are not willing to spend their own money just to appease their curiosity. If you apply for a new job you may have to give your consent for a background check, and at this point you can make the decision to decline the background check or you can choose to explain the charges before you give consent so the employer can decide whether they want to continue the hiring process or not.