Depending upon the type of business; the criminal background check may place emphasis on different aspects of a potential employee’s background. For example for a job that requires driving, a history of drunk driving or drug violations will be more important than minor misdemeanors involving petty thefts. A criminal background check for a job involving the handling of money would place emphasis on arrests and convictions involving gambling or embezzlement. A security officer criminal background check would place more emphasis on finding convictions for weapons, assault or sex crime charges.
One problem for investigators in a criminal background check are juvenile criminal records. Many states allow access to juvenile files if they involve serious crimes but there are still some states that continue to seal all juvenile criminal records for even the most serious crimes. Juvenile records may be less important for a criminal background check on an older potential employee but may be very crucial in evaluating a very young employment prospect.
In addition the the above problems an additional problem is that many names are similar and someone with either a warrant or a criminal record may have a common name and his birth date may be the same as several other people.
The problem is that an employer does not want to deny a position to someone simply based on a case of mistaken identity. This could lead to legal problems and lawsuits if an error in identity is made.
On the other hand a sensitive position should not be filled by a judgement call or the benefit of the doubt. The investigator must be certain that the persons who have similar names and birth dates to people with records or warrants are, in fact, not those people and that may require some extra effort to contact the agency who put the record into the law enforcement tracking systems. There must be no doubt as to the identity of the person undergoing a criminal background check. It is certainly best to find out the individual’s background accurately prior to, and not after he is on the job.
For more information contact us at criminal background check or call 1.770.426.0547
