Background Check for Criminal Records

Most of us are unaware of what a background check is. We may even feel that it's a formality carried out only or mainly by companies and that we need not bother about it. However, a background check may come in handy for everyone, even in the case of people who do not own a business venture.

Need of a Background Check for Criminal Records

You may ask, when will a person need to do a background check for criminal records? What are the possible scenarios when a background check for criminal records becomes essential? Here are a few of the scenarios in which you may want to do background check:

Personal Background Check
As the name suggests, this is a background check that run on ourselves. This is a check that will be useful to every citizen. Whenever you apply for jobs, most companies will initiate a background check process on you. It will be an added advantage, if you have an idea about what your prospective employees will get to see, when they run a background check on you. This will give you an idea about how your profile looks, from the employer's perspective and how you can increase your chances of getting selected. In most cases, when criminals are arrested, they use false names, addresses and date of births. If, unfortunately, the names or addresses given, are similar to your name or address, these records will show up in your background check. This is when doing a personal background check will help. You can challenge the record and submit your fingerprints and thereby, prove that a wrong entry has been made against your name.

Pre-employment Background Check
When hiring an employee, it's extremely essential that you first run a background check for criminal records and also for credit history, to ensure that the person you are hiring is reliable enough and the information he has submitted is true. In case this is neglected and the employee indulges in any illegal activity when on duty, the company can be held responsible for negligent hiring. For example, consider a plumbing company which has employed a plumber, who had a criminal charge of theft against him. If, he commits a theft in a client's house, the plumbing company can be charged with the offense of negligent hiring. Apart from this, ensuring that an employee has a clean criminal record will always be beneficial for the company.

Child Care and Other Reasons
It is absolutely essential to have a background check done on nannies and babysitters. The safety of your children is at stake and it is absolutely necessary that the person you hire has a clean criminal record. Also, in the case of organizations who hire people for health and related services, it is essential to do a background check for criminal records. Additionally, background checks may be needed if we wish to find information about your prospective spouse or someone your daughter or son is thinking of marrying, or while buying business ventures and such other similar situations.

How to do a Background Check for Criminal Records

Google Search
Searching for information on Google, is the easiest way of trying to find out about any person under consideration. However, these may include results with similar data and cannot be considered accurate. This will, nonetheless, provide a general background information about a person.

Reference and Personal Checks
In case of pre-employment checks, the first step while doing background checks on the candidate, is to do the reference and personal checks. This can be done, based on the information the candidate has provided. This may seem a very simple form of checking, but it may reveal quite a lot; in cases when the previous employer or reference is aware about any shady background information.

State Criminal Records
This can be done by searching the criminal records of the states in which the person under consideration has lived. Records of all the states and with all the previous addresses need to be examined. Many states allow access to records online; while some require a written application to access the records. Also, there are a number of restrictions in place, as to how much information is accessible and how it should be used. It is necessary to be acquainted with these restrictions. In addition to this, the authenticity and the accurateness of the information should also be taken into consideration.

FBI Criminal Records
The FBI also keeps consolidated criminal records. These can be used to do background checks for criminal records. These have many restrictions in terms of the data that can be accessible. The information is available by paying a nominal fee for every search. As in state criminal records, here too, the searches based on fingerprints are the most accurate.

Hired Services
This is usually, the most preferred way of doing background searches for criminal records. These service providers will give you a detailed report and all the relevant information that you need, without having to search yourself. However, these are paid services and may include huge fees. There are free sites available on the internet, however, none of them provide necessary, useful and sufficient information so paid sites should be preferred. Moreover, you need to take care that these are registered sites or services and that they abide by all the laws on personal privacy. In most cases, the need for a hired service is not necessary, and information can be searched personally.

Tips to do Background Checks for Criminal Records

Here are a few tips that will be helpful while doing background checks for criminal records.

1. Take a written permission of the prospective employee before running a background check.
2. Getting credit details of an employee requires a written consent.
3. Maintain all the documentation. Maintain copies of the correspondence with every source of information and also any documentation in relation to the background check with the employee.
4. Make sure that you are allowed access to the data that you ask for.
5. If employment is rejected due to any results of the background check, provide a copy of the relevant data to the candidate. In addition, it is mandatory to inform the candidate about the fact that he has the right to challenge the document in question and that his candidature will be reconsidered if he successfully proves that the references under question are wrong.
6. Prefer to employ a search with fingerprints, rather than the use of first name, last name and/or birth date, year; as these may be inaccurate.
7. If the services of any agency are involved, make sure that the data that you have received is accurate.

Thus, a background check is a useful tool that can be used to establish the credibility of the person that we are dealing with. Also, it is not very difficult to do a background check for criminal records if we are aware of the available options and the restrictions that are in place. It will help us to avoid being victims of unfortunate events. All that is required, is a well-directed search.