This Comment, from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law's Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, discusses the underlying purpose for and importance of providing relief through expungement.Of particular importance is that expungement allows individuals to obtain employment and housing, unhampered by their status as ex-offenders. 

The Comment proceeds by discussing the evolution of the databroker industry and how criminal records have become readily available through largely unregulated, private, non-government sources. 

The authors then argue that the unregulated release of information by data brokers is posing a serious threat to the important role that expungement plays. 

The authors then discuss why a federal regulatory scheme is the best way to protect post expungement privacy rights.

The Comment concludes by outlining the legislative aims in creating such a statute.