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Showing posts from September, 2018

Can I get someone else's criminal convictions history without their knowledge?

In short, no. If you want to find out about someone’s criminal record, one way is to use the Check Please service, which automates the process and can give you the result in as little as 3 working days. However while Check Please automates the process (and allows for requests to be processed much faster than the manual process provided by the Ministry of Justice), it still relies on the Individual's consent. As such, apart from some fringe situations under the Official Information Act (OIA), you cannot obtain someone else's criminal convictions history (criminal record) without their knowledge and consent. Another exception is a new scheme that has been introduced by the Police specifically for people to find out if their partner or a family member's partner has a history of violence. The aim is to enable a partner of a previously violent individual to make informed choices about whether and how they continue the relationship. Further information about the scheme

The complete history of New Zealand's Clean Slate Act

The Ministry of Justice's Criminal Records Unit processes about 450,000 requests a year from New Zealanders wanting to see their records, often to provide them to a potential employer. New Zealand's Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004 was designed to allow people with less serious offenses and who have not re-offended within seven years to put the past behind them. Rather than simply being "soft on crime" as some opponents claimed at the time the Act was passed, the seven-year qualifying period was based on statistical evidence that showed people with minor convictions who had not re-offended after seven years were no more likely to re-offend than those without convictions. No one doubted that the Act would have a significant impact in concealing past convictions, and it did. Information released by the Ministry of Justice showed that 115,508 people who requested a copy of their criminal history between November 2004 and June 2014 were told they "ha