Which API should I use?

Pick by the question you are answering. Most integrations use two products together.

By the question you are answering

You need to know…	Use	Request to start from
Is this person on a sex offender registry anywhere in the US?	Sex Offender Search API	`POST /v1/search` with `query.firstName`, `query.lastName` and, when you have it, `query.dob`.
Does this person have criminal records — bookings, charges, convictions, custody?	Criminal Records API	`POST /v1/criminal/search` with `lastName`, `firstName`, `dob` and the `state` you know.
Tell me if a record appears, changes or disappears for a person I screened.	Monitoring API	`POST /v1/monitors` with the person, one `product` to watch (`sex-offender` or `criminal`; two monitors for both) and a delivery channel.
Tell me when a registrant moves near an address.	Monitoring API (location monitor)	`POST /v1/monitors` with an address and a radius.
Draw registrants on a map in my product.	Offender Map API	`GET /v1/map/viewport` with the map bounds.
Produce a consumer report for employment, housing or credit decisions.	FCRA Partner API — approved partners only	`POST /v1/fcra/orders` after partner access.
Civil cases, judgments and non-criminal court records.	Court Search API — coming soon	Not available yet; use the Criminal Records API for criminal court cases today.

Screening a person (admissions, hiring outside FCRA scope, visitor checks): Sex Offender Search + Criminal Records, then a Monitoring person watch so the answer stays current. See the skilled nursing guide.
A place or a route: Sex Offender Search by address or radius, the Map API to draw it, a Monitoring location watch to be told when it changes.
A regulated consumer report: the FCRA Partner API only. The self-service search APIs are not consumer reports and carry a legal.notice saying so on every response.

Confirm identity. A match is a candidate with a matchConfidence and a labelled basis; your workflow decides.
Prove a clean history. An empty result means no record was found in the sources searched, read sourceStatus and counts before treating it as absence.
Turn an arrest into a conviction. Criminal records carry charges, dispositions and statuses as the source published them; read arrests vs. charges vs. convictions.
Make a workflow FCRA-compliant by itself. The FCRA Partner API provides the regulated mechanics; permissible purpose, consent and adverse-action handling remain the partner's obligations.