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Direct answer

A “criminal background check” can mean different products

A “criminal background check” can mean different products. Your FBI Identity History Summary is a fingerprint-based personal record. State repositories provide state-specific criminal-history products. Court systems provide case records. If an employer buys a consumer background report, FCRA procedures apply to that use.

Research method

Record clues that can move the search forward

Full name and aliases

Useful across many record searches.

Date of birth

Use when the official system permits/requires it.

Jurisdiction

Identify where the relevant event occurred.

Process

A step-by-step route for criminal background check information

  1. 01
    Define the use

    Personal review, public-record research, employment screening, or known case.

  2. 02
    Choose the authority

    Match each factual question to the agency/court that owns that record.

  3. 03
    Keep products separate

    Document source and date; do not call one result a “complete background check.”

Source map

What “background check” can mean

Product Official source Useful for Not the same as
FBI Identity History Summary FBI Your fingerprint-based FBI summary State court file
State criminal history State repository State repository record Federal case index
Federal court search PACER Federal case and docket research Criminal-history repository
Employment consumer report rules FTC Rights/procedures when a reporting company is used Record custodian
Context

How to interpret criminal background check information results

The FBI’s Identity History Summary is based on fingerprint submissions and is available through a specific personal request process. Start on the FBI Identity History Summary page and choose its online, mail or approved-channeler option. A direct FBI request costs $18 per person and requires fingerprints; online applicants complete the application and payment before a participating Post Office fingerprint visit, or mail a fingerprint card as instructed. Fingerprinting or channeler charges may be additional. This personal review product is not the employment/licensing submission; use the requesting state’s designated procedure for that purpose.

When an employer uses a background-reporting company, FTC guidance requires a standalone written disclosure and your written permission before the report is obtained. Before an unfavorable hiring, retention or promotion decision based on the report, the employer must provide the report and a summary of FCRA rights.

After a report-based adverse decision, the notice must identify the reporting company and explain that it did not make the employment decision, your right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information, and your right to another free report if requested within 60 days. Send a dispute and supporting documents to the reporting company, review its correction, and ask it to send the corrected report to the employer.

PACER is a federal-court system. It does not establish state criminal-history completeness.

Interpretation
Completeness is source-specific
A background check can combine several record systems. “No result” in one system only describes that system and search.

Related Record Guides

Sources

Authoritative next stops

Official federal judiciary source

PACER - Find a Case

Federal court case search

United States federal courts