A criminal background check is a procedure that a concerned individual or institution uses to verify an individual’s criminal history, education, work history, criminal record, and other personal information about someone, from their past. It can also be used to assess the character of a new neighbor, business partner, potential employee, or a new friend. This type of background check can give you a lot of useful information on people, if you know how to use it properly.
A standard tenant criminal background check will not give you everything you need to make a decision. Even the best, most comprehensive background checks will only tell you what they list in their report. For example, if the person you are checking out has been convicted of rape, you will still not know whether that person has had sex with a minor or commits felony murder. Even though you can easily find out the severity of the charges a person may have faced, you will never be able to tell for sure if they committed the crime because other crimes may have slipped through the cracks.
The search criteria used by public and private companies that offer criminal background checks is always different. These companies may look at either prison records state records, municipal court records, FBI files, or even marriage and divorce records. Some searches might also include military records, court records, library records, or census records. The level of information available is staggering, but not all of it useful. In order to get a more in-depth investigation, you should consider narrowing down your searches to a specific category.
Did someone else warn you that someone you knew had committed a crime? If you suspect your child, partner, or friend of committing infractions, such as assault, vandalism, DWI, theft, or something along those lines; there are ways to find out who they have been in contact with. If your children are constantly being date rape, kidnapping, molestation, or something along those lines; there is a high chance that they have been in contact with the criminal. There are many options available to find out about background screening infractions, but sometimes there is just not enough data available to get to the bottom of the matter. A simple Google search will show you millions of results, but the real meat of the investigation is often hidden behind another layer of unsecured data. This can be frustrating and lead to frustration when you cannot seem to find the information that you need.
The most important aspect of the search is to simply locate the federal government databases that contain these types of information. Although there are state and city directories that list past felonies and sex offenses, federal government databases hold information on past crimes, pending cases, felony charges, and convictions. If a candidate has an FBI background check on file, but his or her database has no FICO scores, or other major red flags; there may be other issues.
Finding and connecting the dots from personal information to criminal background checks is not always easy. There are sometimes several different sources that must be investigated before a concrete conclusion can be drawn. Employment background screening process applicants should not be the only basis for a decision. People seeking jobs are not to be trusted blindly. A thorough investigation of the applicant’s personal and professional history should be the first step in the hiring process.