As with anything free it is important to have reasonable expectations. This is just as true regarding free criminal background checks.

While a comprehensive criminal background check will always yield accurate and detailed results, you should be encouraged to know that a fair amount of data can still be found using free methods.

Where To Look

If the person you are checking on has committed a crime that was reported on by a newspaper or other reporting agency then the info you are looking for should be easy to find. These types of news reports are especially popular on the more dramatic crimes such as multiple murders or large-scale embezzlements.

If the crime was posted in a paper that makes their news available online then you should be able to find it with a search engine like Google or Yahoo.

Additionally you have the legal right to check all criminal records by visiting your local courthouse. There may be some useful info there, though you will have to do the searching and cross-referencing yourself.

This method can be done by visiting the courthouse and filling out a written application for access to the database or courthouse records. The application will usually take a few days to process. Then when you are approved you can visit the courthouse again and begin sifting through the paper work to see what you can find.

This type of search has its limitations in that each courthouse only carries documents for the jurisdiction they serve. This means that you may not get a complete criminal history unless you scour every courthouse in the state.

Most often the limitations to the free criminal background check methods don't turn up enough data for people to make a valid judgment about someone's character or whether someone is safe to let around family or finances.