Meaning of ‘criminal record’ can be ambiguous

“70 million Americans have a criminal record — that’s

one in three adults.” — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on July 18 in an article on LinkedIn

Cuomo did not make any distinction between convictions and arrests in his article. He just used the term “criminal record” without defining it.

The meaning of “criminal record” can be ambiguous.

The FBI considers anyone who has been arrested on a felony charge to have a criminal record, even if the arrest did not lead to a conviction. So by the FBI’s standard, 73.5 million people in the United States had a criminal record as of June 30.

A search on the internet will tell you a criminal record is a history of someone’s convictions, a step beyond the FBI’s definition. There is no federal data on the number of people with a criminal conviction living in the U.S.

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics does have an estimate for how many people were under correctional supervision in 2015. The bureau reported 6.7 million adults either incarcerated or on parole or probation. That’s close to three out of every 100 adults.

Our ruling

Cuomo said “70 million Americans have a criminal record — that’s one in three adults.” By the FBI definition, that is correct. But the FBI definition is different from the common-sense definition. His claim may have been interpreted by some to mean one-third of adults have a criminal conviction. That’s not true.

His statement leaves out how he defines criminal record, an important detail. We rate it Half True.

AP New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn’t make any distinction between convictions and arrests in his article.