What the OffenderSearch blog covers: comparisons, compliance explainers and practical guides.
Three kinds of writing live here. Comparisons rank the sex offender, criminal record and background check APIs on criteria anyone can check. Compliance explainers walk screening companies through the FCRA rules that touch registry and court data. Practical guides help families, landlords, volunteer coordinators and care providers run a check the right way. Posts are grouped by topic below, newest first within each group.
FCRA compliance for background screening companies
For consumer reporting agencies and screening platforms: when registry data becomes part of a consumer report, how the seven-year rule treats criminal records, how a public-records dispute is reinvestigated, and what to demand from a data vendor.
Is a sex offender registry check a consumer report?
When a registry search becomes part of an FCRA consumer report, what that changes for screening companies, and the state laws that restrict registry data.
The FCRA seven-year rule for criminal records, explained
What the seven-year rule removes, why convictions are exempt federally, how the $75,000 salary exemption works, and where state caps go further.
FCRA disputes: the 30-day reinvestigation for public records
The dispute clock, the extension, deleting what cannot be verified, and who must be told — when the record belongs to a court or a registry.
What a CRA should require from a public-records vendor
A due-diligence checklist for screening companies buying criminal and registry data, drawn from the FCRA accuracy cases.
Choosing a sex offender, criminal record or background check API
Side-by-side comparisons of the APIs in each category, ranked on coverage you can enumerate, provenance, match quality and published pricing — plus developer walkthroughs for adding registry screening to an app and building a map.
The top 5 sex offender APIs in 2026
Five ways to search US registries programmatically — coverage you can enumerate, provenance, match quality, pricing, and the free official baseline.
The top 5 criminal record search APIs in 2026
Jail bookings, prison custody, court cases and warrants are four different systems. The right API depends on which one your question actually needs.
The top 5 background check APIs in 2026
Five brands, three companies: the consolidation nobody mentions, each vendor’s real published price, and the only per-call API on the list.
How to add sex offender screening to your app
A developer walkthrough: get a key, one call across all 58 US registries, read a scored source-cited response, and the field that flags a partial search.
How to build a sex offender map with MapLibre
A developer tutorial with full code: clusters, pins, names and a record panel on your own map, running in free test mode on sample data.
Caregiver, home care and nursing home screening
What the law requires of home-care agencies, care marketplaces and nursing homes, what the reported abuse numbers say, and how teams screen caregivers and residents without slowing hiring or intake.
Caregiver abuse statistics (2026)
What the reported numbers say about elder and child abuse by caregivers — prevalence, under-reporting, the home-care workforce — and how to check before you hire.
Caregiver screening for care platforms
For childcare and senior-care marketplaces: screen caregivers against 58 US registries via one API — the trust-and-safety control after the Care.com reporting.
Home care background check requirements
What federal and state law require for home-care and home-health agency screening — and how agencies run it at scale by API or CSV.
Does a nursing home check for sex offenders?
What federal and state law actually require for resident screening, why facilities screen anyway, and how admissions teams run it without slowing intake.
Dating app safety and romance scam research
For people meeting someone from an app, and for the platforms that host them: how to check a match before a first date, what the reported romance-scam numbers show, and how dating platforms screen members.
How to background check a dating app match
Matched on Tinder, Bumble or Hinge and thinking about meeting? Five minutes, four steps to verify who you’re really talking to.
Romance scam statistics (2026)
What the reported numbers say about romance scams and catfishing — losses, victims, red flags — and how to check a date before you meet.
Sex offender screening for dating apps
For dating & social platforms: screen users against 58 US registries via one API, at signup or in bulk, as a trust-and-safety step you can point to.
Screening volunteers and tenants, and sex offender alerts near you
Practical guides for nonprofits, youth programs and landlords — including where the legal lines are for housing — and how to get an email when the registry picture changes near a home or a person you care about.
How to screen volunteers for sex offenders
For nonprofits, churches, schools and youth sports: how to check volunteers against the registry, one at a time or a whole roster by CSV.
How to screen tenants for sex offenders
A landlord’s guide: how to check applicants against the registry, one at a time or a whole portfolio by CSV, and where the legal lines are.
Get alerted when a sex offender moves nearby
A search is a snapshot; monitoring tells you. How to set area and person alerts so you are emailed when the registry picture changes near you.
How we write comparisons and compliance posts
We sell a registry and criminal-records API, so every comparison says so up front and ranks vendors on things a reader can verify: which jurisdictions are covered, whether each result links to the official record, how matches are scored, and what the published price is. Where another product is the better fit for a use case, the post says that too.
Legal posts cite the statute, regulation or case they rely on, and they separate what the law requires from what is merely common practice. They are not legal advice. If a result will help decide whether to hire someone or rent to them, it has to run through an FCRA-regulated workflow — see how FCRA workflows work.
For step-by-step instructions, the developer and screening guides cover integrations end to end, and screening by industry explains when each sector checks and what its rules require. Statistics on registrants themselves are on how many sex offenders are in the US.
Background check API blog: common questions about how we compare vendors
Are the comparisons neutral?
Where do competitor prices come from?
Are the compliance posts legal advice?
Test the sex offender API free, on names you already know.
25 searches, no card, no sales call. A citation on every record.