State of Criminal Records Today
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SEARCHING COURT RECORDS IN MASSACHUSETTS
- In MA, each court is the “keeper of records” for that particular court,
there is no centralized repository or database. And usually criminal records
are kept in a different Clerk of Court’s office than the civil records for
each courthouse.
- All “old” records can only be found with a Docket # or by checking the
Index Books for each year of interest. Frequently entire Index Books are
missing or pages ripped out so that you can’t find the Docket # and thus you
are at a dead-end. See my next comment for the definition of “old”.
- Each courthouse has been computerizing records, however each courthouse
determines how far back they go to computerize the data, so “old” is highly
variable . . . in one court it could be more than 4 years ago and in another
it could be more than 15 years ago. No way to tell until you are standing at
the window or computer in each Clerk’s office.
- No district court or probate court computerized records seem to be
available outside of the Clerk’s office. So you need to pay a personal visit
to obtain the info. [I am not sure about superior court cases. Some
Registries of Deeds have computerized their records and are searchable
outside the courthouse.]
- Some cases (probably appeals courts and higher) are computerized for
access from outside the courthouses, but these all require a subscription
service with a third-party company. If you have case names/Docket #s, and if
those records are computerized, you may be able to access them.
- As for visiting courthouses to get this info, it’s a very labor-intensive
effort, as there are numerous courthouses in different cities/towns within
the county (and again, no central records). Plymouth County has the
following locations:
* Probate Court – Plymouth and Brockton
* Registry of Deeds – Plymouth
* District Court (which also hears traffic cases, small claims, civil and
criminal) – Plymouth, Brockton, Wareham and Hingham
* Superior Court (civil and criminal) – Plymouth and Brockton
* Juvenile Court (but records are sealed and thus inaccessible) – Plymouth,
Brockton, Wareham and Hingham
- But if the person in question gets picked up for a criminal/traffic
offense only a few miles away from Plymouth, he might have been tried in
Barnstable, Bristol or Norfolk Counties . . . each of which also have
numerous courthouse locations.
The travel between these four cities/towns is ~60 miles one way on
back-country roads to hit all four of them and thus the venture would be
very time-intensive.
Len Segal
Constable/Sharon (MA)
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According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics as of Dec 2006
Criminal Record Systems Statistics
On this page:
Summary findings | Publications | About the data collections | Related sites
Summary findings
In this section:
Criminal history records | Background checks for firearms transfers |
Sex offender registries
A criminal history record describes any arrests and subsequent dispositions attributable to an individual. Complete, accurate, and immediately accessible records enable states to:
- immediately identify individuals with prior criminal records in any state
- more effectively identify felons and others prohibited from firearm purchases
- check backgrounds of persons responsible for child, elder and disabled care
- identify individuals who have a history of domestic violence or stalking
- make informed decisions relating to pretrial release and detention of offenders, prosecutions of career criminals and appropriate correctional confinement
- conduct background checks to protect public safety and national security
Criminal records are maintained by each state in a central repository. To facilitate the interstate exchange of criminal history records, the FBI maintains the Interstate Identification Index (III) which is an “index-pointer” system to records of persons arrested for felonies or serious misdemeanors under state or federal law.
On December 31, 2006 —
- Over 81 million criminal history records were in the criminal history files of the state criminal history repositories. (An individual offender may have records in several states.)
- Ninety-one percent of the criminal history records maintained by the state criminal history repositories were automated. Approximately 7 million records, or 9%, were not automated.
- All of the reporting states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico had automated at least some records in either the criminal history record file or the master name index.
* Interstate Identification Index, FBI data through December 2006
Source: SEARCH <!– –> Survey of State Criminal History Information Systems, 2006 <!– –> .
Background checks for firearm transfers
Federal law prohibits firearm possession by or transfer to prohibited persons including those who are under indictment for or convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than 1 year.
- In 2007 over 8.6 million applications for firearm transfers or permits were subject to background checks under the Brady Act and similar state laws.
- From the inception of the Brady Act in March 1994 through December 2007, more than 87 million applications for firearm transfers were subject to background checks. About 1,631,000 applications were rejected.
- Among state checking agencies in 2007, 39% of all rejections for firearm transfers were due to a felony conviction.
- Among all agencies conducting background checks, 64% of applications were denied due to reasons other than a felony conviction in 2007.
As of April 2008 —
- All 50 states and the District of Columbia had centralized sex offender registries.
- 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands were submitting records on sexual offenders to the National Sex Offender Registry.
Publications
To see a full abstract of a publication and to download electronic versions of the publication, click on the title.
Survey of State Criminal History Information Systems, 2006, 10/08. Describes the status of state criminal history records systems as of yearend 2006. NCJ 246866
Ann Lane
knhayes
