How to Read a Criminal Record: Dispositions and Codes
A criminal history record, often called a rap sheet, lists each arrest, the charge filed, the law cited, and the case's disposition. Reading one means separating arrest entries from convictions, decoding outcome terms and classification codes, and recognizing what the record leaves out, including missing dispositions, sealed cases, and entries that belong to someone else.
A criminal history record, often called a rap sheet, is a chronological list of arrests, charges and court outcomes attached to one person's identifying information. Reading it means treating every line as a separate event with its own fields: the agency involved, the offense as originally reported, the law cited, the offense level, and the disposition, which is the official ending of that charge.
The most common mistake is to read every line as a conviction. An arrest entry is not a finding of guilt, and a charge that was dismissed or dropped by a prosecutor still appears on many records. The second most common mistake is to assume the record is complete: records are compiled from several agencies, and blank dispositions, out-of-state entries and restricted cases are routine rather than unusual.
The sections below explain what a record contains, how to read one entry field by field, the standard disposition terms, how citations and classification codes work, and what a record cannot tell you. The rules differ by state, court and the agency that produced the document.
What a criminal history record contains
A record is assembled from documents contributed by police departments, courts and corrections agencies. Entries are usually grouped into segments: identifying information; an arrest segment with each arrest, its date, the arresting agency and the offense as reported by police; a court segment with charges, case numbers, courts and dispositions; and a custody segment with sentences, facilities and release dates, which is the kind of information the Bureau of Justice Statistics collects nationally. Not every record has all four segments.
State repositories issue what is commonly called a state criminal history record. The FBI Identity History Summary is a federal compilation built from records that states submit through the Interstate Identification Index, a pointer system rather than one central file. Because each source reports at a different point in a case, one incident can produce several entries: an arrest line from police, a court line with the outcome, and a custody line with the sentence. Federal and state cases are recorded in separate systems, and the U.S. Courts explains how federal criminal cases proceed.
Reading one entry, field by field
- Identifiers. Name, aliases, date of birth and identification numbers such as a state repository number or FBI number. These link entries to a person, and they are also where mismatches happen.
- Arrest date and arresting agency. The date the arrest was recorded and the department that reported it. This is an event record, not a legal conclusion.
- Charge as first reported. The offense description written by the arresting agency. Prosecutors may later file different charges, fewer charges, or none at all.
- Statute or ordinance cited. The law the charge is based on, usually given as a code section.
- Offense level or degree. Whether the charge is a felony or a misdemeanor, and its class or degree under that state's law.
- Disposition and its date. The outcome: convicted, acquitted, dismissed, dropped, deferred, or still pending.
- Sentence or sanction. Where a conviction exists, the record may show incarceration, probation, a fine or another sanction, with dates.
- Contributing agency. Which court or agency reported the entry, which is generally also the agency that can correct it.
Common dispositions and what they mean
Disposition is the field that confuses readers most, because the vocabulary mixes court terms, abbreviations and local practice.
| Term on the record | What it indicates | What it does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| Convicted / Guilty | A guilty plea or verdict was accepted, and a sentence follows. | It does not show whether the sentence was served. |
| Acquitted / Not guilty | The charge was not proven at trial. | The arrest entry usually remains on the record. |
| Nolle prosequi (nolle) | The prosecutor formally ended the charge. | It is not an acquittal, and refiling is sometimes possible. |
| Dismissed | A court ended the case, often on a procedural or legal ground. | It does not erase the arrest. |
| Nolo contendere (no contest) | A plea that accepts the court's penalty without a formal admission of guilt; the Cornell Legal Information Institute defines the term. | Whether it counts as a conviction depends on the context. |
| Deferred adjudication | The court withholds a formal conviction while conditions are completed. | Treating it as not a conviction is not automatic. |
| Pending / Open | No final outcome has been recorded. | It is neither a conviction nor an acquittal. |
| Expunged / Sealed | Access is restricted by court order or statute. | Copies held by other agencies may still exist. |
Decoding citations and classification codes
The numbers and letters attached to a charge identify the law and the category of offense, not the facts of the case.
- Statute citations. A citation points to a section of a code: federal law in the U.S. Code, a state statute, or a local ordinance. Two people can be charged under the same section based on very different conduct.
- Degree or class. States rank offenses, often as first, second or third degree, or by lettered classes. A class label from one state does not translate directly into another state's ladder.
- Standardized offense codes. Agencies that share data often record offenses with numeric codes, such as those used in the FBI's National Crime Information Center. The code reflects the reported offense category, not the outcome.
- Disposition abbreviations. Repositories typically shorten outcomes into a few letters or digits, so a key or legend from the issuing repository is normally needed to read them.
- Counts. Multiple charges from one incident are numbered as counts, and counts can be dismissed individually, so one case can show a conviction and several dismissals.
What a record does not tell you
- Whether a person was convicted. Arrest and charge entries frequently exist with no conviction attached.
- Whether the record is complete. Disposition fields are often blank because a court did not report the outcome back to the repository.
- Whether a case was erased. Sealing and expungement restrict access in different ways, so an entry can be absent from a public record and still present in another agency's file.
- Whether a background check matches the official record. Consumer reporting agencies compile their own databases, which can contain incomplete or mismatched information; the Federal Trade Commission publishes consumer guidance on those reports.
- Anything about juvenile matters. Juvenile records are generally governed by separate rules and are not part of an adult history.
Challenging an inaccurate entry
Each entry is generally controlled by the agency that contributed it, and each has its own review process. The FBI publishes a process for reviewing an Identity History Summary and requesting a correction, and state repositories and courts publish similar procedures for their own records.
Where this varies
Nearly everything above changes by state and locality. States set their own offense classifications, so a felony in one state may be a misdemeanor in another. Repositories differ in what they keep, how long entries remain, which disposition terms they use, and whether arrest-only entries are retained. Courts use their own numbering systems and abbreviations. Sealing and expungement eligibility is set by state statute or, for federal cases, by federal law, and the effect of a granted request differs by jurisdiction. Federal and state systems are separate, so a person can have a federal case, a state case, or both.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an arrest and a conviction on a criminal record?
An arrest entry records that a person was taken into custody or charged. A conviction entry records that a court accepted a guilty plea or a guilty verdict. Many records contain arrests with no conviction attached, because charges were dismissed, dropped or never filed. Reading the disposition field is what separates the two.
What does disposition mean on a criminal record?
Disposition is the field showing how a charge ended: convicted, acquitted, dismissed, dropped by the prosecutor, deferred, or still pending. It is the most important field for judging what a record actually says, because an arrest or charge entry without a disposition does not establish that anything was proven.
What does nolle prosequi mean on a record?
Nolle prosequi is Latin for unwilling to pursue. On a record it means the prosecutor formally ended the charge rather than taking it to trial. It is not an acquittal and not a finding of innocence, and depending on the jurisdiction and the reason, the charge can sometimes be refiled.
Why is the disposition missing from a criminal record?
Records are compiled from reports submitted by separate agencies. When a court does not report a final outcome back to the state repository or the FBI, the entry keeps the arrest or charge information and leaves the disposition field empty. The document therefore does not show the outcome, even though a court record of it may exist.
Does an expunged case still appear on a criminal record?
It can. Expungement and sealing restrict access to a record, but the effect depends on the jurisdiction and on which agency holds a copy. Private background check databases may retain older information, and agencies that contributed the original entry may not be covered by the same order.
What do the codes and numbers on a criminal record mean?
Statute citations point to the law a charge is based on, degree or class labels rank the offense under that state's system, and standardized numeric codes categorize reported offenses for data sharing. Disposition abbreviations are set by each repository, so a key or legend from the issuing agency is usually needed to read them.
Written and reviewed by the InmateSearch.co Editorial Team. This page describes how the process generally works and is not legal advice.
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