You conducted a background check on someone and found out he or she has a criminal conviction. It might come have come as a surprise but then you learn that 1 in 3 Americans has a criminal conviction and then you shift your surprise to the fact that this person didn’t tell you!

While some people might be keeping that secret for sinister reasons, others may have sympathetic reasons for keeping their criminal past hidden from you.

In a process called expungement, one may be able to seal their arrest or conviction records.

This means that if someone is arrested or convicted of a crime – however petty or major – he or she can expunge the arrest or conviction and it would disappear from their records.