Our multi-jurisdictional database is made up of a number of source types.
Administrative office of courts
Most states have statewide repositories that collect criminal records from all counties in that state; but there are many variables such as how states and counties define criminal records. One of the two most common sources is the administrative office of courts. Administrative office of courts are statewide repositories which maintain criminal court records for the entire state. Data from these repositories can include information about felony and misdemeanor cases filed in the state. A record from an administrative office of courts source does not necessarily represent a conviction.
Department of corrections
The second most common source for a statewide repository is the department of corrections. Department of corrections data may include information regarding incarceration, probation, and parole history in the state. Contrary to the administrative office of courts records, department of corrections records typically represent a conviction or diversionary program or deferred adjudication (which typically involves probation).
Counties
The laws that govern the statewide repositories are often loosely enforced, partially due to cost, which can cause information gaps. Besides the many statewide repository sources that we have in our database, we have a dedicated data-acquisition team that focuses on adding local records from counties to supplement the information on the state level.
Offender registries
We have offender registry data, such as sex offender registries from sources in all 50 states, with photos in all. Our offender-registry data includes sources not found in many competitors' databases, including those from Washington DC, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Native American tribes. Details in the report may include: identifiers, registered addresses, aliases, case numbers, charge, conviction details, and period of incarceration.
National Security Sources
We include information about individuals and corporations linked to terrorism or terrorist activity in our database. Also included are those that have been debarred, denied, sanctioned, or are listed on exclusion, most wanted, fugitive lists, and more. Key sources included OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List, FDA’s Debarment List, OIG’s Exclusion List, OCC’s Enforcement Actions List, GSA’s Excluded Parties List, and lists published by the FBI and the DEA, among others.
* Based on a comparison of the number of sources of conviction data for online criminal conviction databases that make their source list publicly available.