Basic Trope: A character implies that they have a criminal record, but no context is ever provided.
- Straight: Bob is known to have done time in prison, but we never find out what for.
- Exaggerated: Bob knows ten different ways to kill a man, frequently shows up to work covered in blood, is on a First-Name Basis with known criminals, and once, when he and his friends are caught trespassing, frantically yells that he's never going back to jail.
- Downplayed: Bob has a very large collection of music and movies on his computer; when someone asks how he affords the downloads, he dodges the question.
- Justified:
- Bob fears stigma from society if they know he is a criminal.
- Bob never outright admits to any crimes so his friends can't testify against him if he is ever caught.
- Bob is an undercover cop who can't get better credentials without leaving glaringly obvious flaws in his cover identity.
- Inverted: Bob, a convict, suggests that he does volunteer work on the side, donates to charity, and even used to be a security guard.
- Subverted: Bob reveals that he has a criminal record...for speeding tickets.
- Double Subverted: ...because he was running from a mob boss.
- Parodied: Bob, a five year old, suggests he has returned library books late, written on walls, and tattled on his sister.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob is stated to have been in jail, has some shady skills, but insists that he doesn't have a criminal record anymore. He was from Free Democratic Troperian Republic which no longer exists and the records were either destroyed in the collapse or successors invalidated previous ones. We still don't know what he was convicted of and if he actually deserved it or not.
- Averted: Bob is never implied to be anything other than a law abiding citizen.
- Enforced: The producers thought the show would be funnier if a character has a bizarre, unexplained past.
- Lampshaded: "Is he ever going to tell us what he went to jail for?''
- Invoked: Alice interrupts Bob every time he starts talking about his past, because what she does know scares her.
- Exploited: Alice doesn't know Bob's past, but she trusts him and knows he at least seems intimidating, so she hires him as a bouncer for her club.
- Defied: Alice grills Bob for details every time he talks about past crimes.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: N/A - this trope is about implications in the first place.
Go and arrest Ambiguous Criminal History on charges of... what did it do again?
