A criminal record can be a bar to certain types of employment, licensing, holding public office, and even the right to vote. Most states allow for a process called expungement that will remove certain arrests or criminal convictions from the offender’s record.

Depending upon the laws of the state in which you live and the nature of the crime, you may be able to get an arrest or conviction sealed or erased from your legal record. After the expungement process is complete, you will not need to disclose the conviction on a job or school application, and in most instances no record of the arrest or conviction will show up during a public records inspection or background check commonly done by potential employers, landlords, and educational institutions. According to G.S. § 12-1.3-1, expungement of records and records of conviction means the sealing and retention of all records of a conviction and/or probation and the removal from active files of all records and information relating to conviction and/or probation. Any person who has been charged with a complaint for a crime involving domestic violence where the complaint was filed upon a plea of not guilty, guilty or nolo contendere, must wait three years from the date of filing to seek expungement of the related criminal records.

In Rhode Island under G.S. § 12-1-12, those eligible for expungement include:

A person arrested for a criminal offense after there has been an acquittal, dismissal, no true bill, no information, or the person has been otherwise exonerated from the offense with which he or she is charged, as long as the person has no previous felony convictions; and

A person detained by police, but not arrested or charged with an offense, or to persons against whom charges have been filed by the court, and the period of such filing has expired

For a full overview of expungement law in the state of Oregon, see the USLegal website.