A rap sheet is your criminal history record: a document that lists every arrest, charge, court outcome, and sentence tied to your fingerprints. The formal name is a Record of Arrests and Prosecutions, and the FBI’s version is called an Identity History Summary.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions Federal, state, and local agencies each keep their own, and what shows up on them can decide whether you get a job, an apartment, a professional license, or a security clearance.
What Is on It
Every rap sheet opens with identifiers: name and aliases, date of birth, physical description, and fingerprints. Everything else is built from fingerprint-linked submissions by law enforcement and courts. When an agency sends your prints to the FBI after an arrest or booking, the associated data gets added to your federal record.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
For each entry, you’ll see the agency that submitted the prints, the arrest date, the charges, and the disposition if one has been reported.2TSA Enrollment by IDEMIA. Your FBI Identity History Summary Dispositions cover convictions, acquittals, dismissals, and deferred adjudications. Sentencing and incarceration dates appear when courts or corrections agencies report them.
What It Doesn’t Cover
A rap sheet tracks criminal matters. It won’t show civil lawsuits, divorce cases, non-criminal traffic tickets, or protective orders. Juvenile adjudications are generally kept separate from adult records, though some states make exceptions for serious offenses.
Missing Dispositions Are Common
Even for the entries it does carry, a rap sheet often doesn’t tell the whole story. Roughly half of FBI rap sheets are missing disposition information, meaning the record shows an arrest but never says what happened in court.3National Employment Law Project. Correcting FBI Records Is Key to Criminal Justice Reform That gap can make an old dismissed case look like an open one. Pulling your own record and fixing those blanks is worth the time.
How to Get a Copy
You can request your record at the federal, state, or local level. Each agency may hold different information because they don’t all share data, so checking more than one gives you the fullest picture.
From the FBI
The FBI’s Identity History Summary Check costs $18 and can be requested electronically.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions You’ll need fingerprints for positive identification, and participating U.S. Post Offices will capture them digitally for $50.4U.S. Postal Service. Register for Fingerprinting at the United States Postal Service Electronic submissions move faster than paper. The copy you receive is for personal review or to challenge the record; if you need a background check for employment, licensing, or adoption, you’ll usually have to go through a state bureau or an authorized channeler instead.5Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Review
From State and Local Agencies
State records come from the state bureau of investigation or its equivalent. Fees run from nothing up to around $25 depending on the state. Local records are handled by the police department where you live or last lived.6U.S. Department of State. Criminal Records Checks Most requests take a form, a government-issued ID, and fingerprints. Some states accept online submissions; others want you in person.
Fixing Mistakes
If something on your record is wrong or missing, you can contact the contributing agency directly or send a challenge to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division. The FBI forwards the challenge to the submitting agency, which verifies or corrects the data, and the federal record is updated from there.7eCFR. 28 CFR 16.34 – Procedure to Obtain Change, Correction or Updating of Identification Records Gather your supporting documents first. Court orders showing a dismissal, proof of completed diversion, or an official letter from the agency will all speed the process. Be specific about which entry is wrong and what it should say.
Who Can See It
Rap sheets aren’t public. Federal law authorizes the exchange of these records among federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies for official use.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 28 – 534 Law enforcement pulls them routinely during investigations and bookings. Government agencies use them for hiring, licensing, and clearance decisions.
Private employers and landlords don’t pull directly from the FBI. They use consumer reporting agencies that build background screening reports from court records and other public sources. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) controls those companies. A screening company can only furnish a report to someone with a permissible purpose, such as evaluating a job applicant, extending credit, or screening a tenant.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 – 1681b The company must take reasonable steps to keep its reports accurate, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has stated that reports including expunged or sealed records violate that requirement.10Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening
How It Affects Hiring
This is where a rap sheet lands hardest. An employer using a background check to make a hiring decision has to follow FCRA procedure. Before rejecting you based on the report, the employer must give you a copy of it and a summary of your rights. After the final decision, the employer must send a notice with the screening company’s name and contact information, a statement that the screener didn’t make the decision, and notice of your right to dispute the report’s accuracy.11Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports – What Employers Need to Know
The FCRA also limits how far back screeners can reach. Arrest records more than seven years old cannot appear on a report unless the position pays $75,000 or more per year.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 – 1681c Convictions have no federal time limit and can be reported indefinitely, though some states impose their own cutoffs.
For federal jobs and positions with federal contractors, the Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act bars inquiries into criminal history before a conditional offer is extended. Exceptions apply for law enforcement roles, jobs requiring a security clearance, and other positions where a background inquiry is required by law.13Congress.gov. S.387 – 116th Congress – Fair Chance Act Many state and local governments have adopted similar “ban the box” rules, with the specifics varying.
Clearing or Hiding a Record
Two legal tools can reduce the impact of what’s on your rap sheet, and they work differently. Expungement orders every public office holding records of the case to dispose of them, so for most purposes the arrest or conviction ceases to exist. Sealing hides the record from public view instead; it still sits in law enforcement databases and can be reached by certain government agencies with a court order, but it won’t surface on a standard background check.
Eligibility turns on state law, the offense, and how much time has passed. Violent felonies and sex crimes are rarely eligible. A growing number of states have “clean slate” laws that automatically seal qualifying records after a waiting period, so you don’t have to petition the court. At the federal level, the Clean Slate Act of 2025 was introduced in Congress but had not been enacted as of early 2026.14Congress.gov. H.R.3114 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) – Clean Slate Act of 2025
If your record has been expunged or sealed, check your rap sheet from time to time anyway. Screening companies sometimes report what they shouldn’t, and that violates the FCRA’s accuracy rules.10Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening You can dispute the entry with the company directly and file a complaint with the CFPB.