Every American citizen has a record detailing information about that individual. Records can contain any type of information, be it financial documents, medical records, education, etc. When you are of age and decide to apply for a job, many employers ask about an individual's background to see if they have been involved in criminal activities. It is quite common for employers to conduct background checks when they are interested in hiring someone. People who have criminal records have the option to have them sealed or expunged. Sealing a document does not make the document non-existent, but it protects its accessibility by the public unless accessed by court order. On the other hand, the expungement of the criminal record entails the total erasure of the criminal record, as if the crime had never been committed. Depending on the circumstances of the crime committed, an ex-felon may deserve a second chance, however the employer gets the right to know who they are hiring for their own protection and that of other clients and co-workers. Expungement, the “procedure for expunging or setting aside the convictions of offenders” (Franklin, Johnson 740), although it had existed for some time, was not widely present – ​​especially in adult convictions – until the late 1950s. The 1956 National Parole Conference in Washington, DC is credited with coming up with the idea of ​​expunging adult criminal records. “In practice today expungement procedures vary, but general convictions and related criminal records concerning the convict are collected, sealed, segregated, opened only to limited inspection, expunged, or actually physically destroyed” (Franklin and Johnsen 742) . The institution of expunging a criminal's record wa...... middle of paper ...... which means the government is ignoring criminals' records and allowing them to re-enter society with their previous crimes expunged. Erasure dishonesty affects society because it prevents people from expressing their beliefs and attitudes towards what they think about criminals re-entering society. When criminals lie about having records, there is no longer a chance that the community will learn to accept them and give them second chances around right from the start of the expungement. Another argument against deletion is for research purposes and to minimize knowledge of crime that the public may be aware of. This means that "not only is the public less able to evaluate the criminal justice system, but sociologists and criminologists are less able to study the origin and correction of criminal behavior".." (769)