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Statutes Requiring the Use of Criminal History Record Information

NCJ Number
129896
Date Published
June 1991
Annotation
This report compiles and describes Federal and State laws dealing with crimes and criminal procedures that require information about an offender's past criminal involvement.
Abstract

The analysis includes provisions dealing with the possession of firearms or other deadly weapons by convicted felons, the release of arrested persons on bail, the charging and sentencing of offenders, the correctional classification of sentenced offenders, and the release of offenders on probation or parole. The laws all refer expressly to criminal history record information as a required or permissible basis for decisionmaking. They all either provide that such information shall or may be made available to particular officials for particular criminal justice purposes or require that past criminal conduct shall or may be considered in making particular decisions affecting offenders. A description of State and Federal criminal history databases available to criminal justice practitioners are also described in terms of their content and limitations. The report covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and the United States government.

Date Published: June 1, 1991