Criminal Records — Their Role and Purpose

Abstract

The original purpose of collating criminal records was to help track and supervise offenders coming out of prison, who were no longer transported abroad or executed (Chapter 2). Later the purpose would become refined down to policing purposes and judicial purposes: policing purposes to aid police investigations — ‘catching thieves on paper’ — and judicial purposes to let the courts know if a convicted person had offended before. The judicial purpose has subsequently grown to include prosecuting agencies, prisons and the probation service, who all need records to complete their task.